


Legacy

by Hades1988



Series: Legacy [1]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Clarke needs a hugh too, Detective Lexa, Eventual Happy Ending, F/F, Heavy Angst, I suck at tags, I'll add more tags along with the chapters, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Injured Lexa (The 100), Lexa (The 100) Needs a Hug, Reporter Clarke Griffin, Slow Burn, Things will get better, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, angsty af, plot heavy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-07-04
Packaged: 2019-10-26 05:27:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 32,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17739872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hades1988/pseuds/Hades1988
Summary: While working on a huge story, journalists Marcus Kane and Clarke Griffin made some powerful enemies who will stop at nothing to keep them from ruining their plans for Polis.Sadly they get Marcus, but not before he asks his friend Detective Woods to help his protegee. Unknowingly bringing them back together after fourteen years of Clarke thinking that Lexa was dead. They have to work together if they want to survive.-------------If only Anya could see her, she'll give her a bigger ass-kicking than the ones she had received in the last twenty-four hours, followed by an eight-mile run in the cold morning and a three-hour sparring session.Lexa stayed on the floor holding her left side, her breaths were shallow. "Calm down," she ordered herself, closing her eyes focusing on all the pain she was feeling, from head to toe. She let it engulf her, her heartbeat picked up, her breath turned ragged, just as it was about to overwhelm her she opened her eyes with one single thought in her head. "Em pleni."





	1. Intro

**Author's Note:**

> This has a very violent beginning, it describes a murder-suicide. If that upsets you, you can skip the Intro.  
> The violence is on par with the one in the show.

They stared at each other for what felt like hours. The ragged breath of a young man merged with the ticking of a relic left there by a previous tenant, it was a clock that never gave the right time.

An older man sat on his reading chair with his face in a deep scowl that he was able to keep, thinking how expensive it was going to be to remove the blood dripping for the young man's arm into the old carpet. He kept bouncing his leg to stave off his panic counting the cars passing below on the street.

The young man's breath began to calm down, then hitched back up with the flicker of the desk lamp turning on by itself. "The hell," he said. His host remained silent.

The damned lamp did that from time to time, it was one of those stupid things you have to touch to turn them on. He never liked the thing, but it was a gift from his mother. He kept staring at the man whose blood had ruined the carpet. The warm light of the lamp was joined by the cold dim light of the cellphone tossed on the desk.

Both eyes flickered to the screen at the same time, it vibrated three times untouched, the younger man took a deep breath at the same time the older one stopped moving his leg. The clock ticked two seconds before the deafening sound of a gun going off cut through the still room.

A thud on the carpeted floor was the only sound that followed. "Fuck!" whispered the older man with a firm grip to his chest, his eyes moved frantically from one side of the room to the other. It seemed that the last thing he'll see would be the cracked ceiling of his office. "I've should have rented the office on Main, it was in better condition," he thought stupidly.

The young man stood next to the body of the older man, he couldn't move. He tried to look away from the lifeless eyes of the man on the floor. Silent hot tears fell from his face, his arm kept bleeding down to the barrel his gun, just as quickly as he ended the other man's life, he ended his own.


	2. One

She felt watched, a small yet vivid presence passing through the unconsciousness of her sleep. Her face hurt, and so did her head. Each on their own category of pain, the first one was caused by a fist and the second one by too much alcohol, so naturally, her mouth was dry and the sound of the tv was way too loud for her ears.  
The strange presence kept its vigil over her. She took a deep breath, trying to calm the nausea rising up from her stomach, every cell in her body making themselves known at once.  
She was in a strange place, that much she could tell, it smelled foreign to the usual places she tended to wake up.

She had been in Audrey's penthouse two days ago; she still could feel the warm breath of the redhead DA tingling her shoulder.  
"What did you say?" She asked the redhead not sure she had heard her right.  
"I'm pregnant, " said Audrey softly looking into her eyes.  
She remembered looking at the alarm clock on the bedside table, it read seven thirty in the morning, it was getting late. She disengaged herself from under the DA who stared at her hurt. "You're saying nothing?" The low voice of the redhead barely reached her ears. She started to get dressed.  
"What do you want me to say?" she asked sincerely putting on her shirt.  
"Don't you want to know how long I am?" said the woman trying to reach for her.  
"Is not mine, so is none of my business," she said putting on her jeans and shoes, urging her mind to focus on the spectacular view of Polis.  
"You soulless bitch!" The redhead chocked kneeling in the middle of the bed grabbing the sheets over her breasts.  
"Em pleni!" She snapped looking at her "Why bother me with this? Tell Rob about it, this concerns him more than me!"  
"He left!" whispered the redhead.  
Her blood ran cold, she couldn't move from her spot feeling that the worst was about to come.  
I told him about us.  
"Us" She repeated in her head and felt sick. "You knew my conditions…"  
"Fuck your stupid conditions! Fuck You!" Yelled Audrey not caring about the neighbors. They stayed motionless in silence. "I love you." Audrey finally said.

She could not bear to hear those words, so grabbed her things from the little drawer in the bedside table, not bothering buckling her belt or putting on her jacket. "Goodbye Audrey," she said before closing the door behind her.

"Aiden, go to your room, please." Said a voice somewhere on the back of the room.  
"Oh, shit!" She knew that voice.  
"But I want to watch cartoons," the unknown presence... a kid whined.  
"Aiden, please." The adult said softly with a hint of unshakable authority that left no room to discussion.  
"Mommy, what happened to her?" She opened one eye from the couch without moving, startling the kid standing next to her feet.  
Fearful blue eyes flickered from her to the woman standing behind her and before she could say a word the kid ran away.  
She remained there for a heartbeat. What a sight she must be for that kid she thought. Her left eye felt swollen, her nose and jaw hurt too, she lifted her hand to look at her knuckles, they were swollen and scrapped. With painful slowness she sat down on the couch she apparently spent the night on. The other adult on the room moved next to the coffee table.  
Guilt washed through her at the disappointed look she was getting from Clarke Griffin.  
She knew her, for a time she could even say she knew her better than she knew herself, now she was sitting in her livingroom clueless as to what to do. How long was since she last saw her?  
"Crap," she whispered, fourteen years!  
"Seriously, that's the first thing you say?"  
Way to keep screwing things up, she thought. "I'm sorry," she passed her fingers through her hair.  
"Can you walk?"  
"I think..." Something was missing. Her right hand went to her hip, nothing. Alarm crossed her features, her head spun from standing up too fast.  
"It's over there."  
She followed with her head the finger pointing at a box on a shelf six feet high from the ground. "You disarmed a police officer?" She asked angrily.  
"I disarmed a drunk I found unconscious on my door," replied Clarke in an angry whisper. Message clear, the kid must not listen to this convo. "How did you know I live here?"  
"I didn’t." She truly didn't. "I didn't even know you lived in this city or how I got here."  
"Please go." Demanded Clarke.  
She nodded, walking to the shelves and retrieved her gun and badge, her guilt felt heavier with every step she took towards the door. Her host took the jacket from the single couch and gave it to her, she grabbed it mindful not to touch the other woman's hand.  
She put on her jacket painfully, regretting the prior night... no, no. Regretting her entire life. Clarke opened the door of the apartment and she walked out.  
"I really..." The door shut with a soft click, the words died on her mouth. She stood there in the hall, her mind had gone completely blank. Out of habit, she looked down at her watch. "Damn it!" She was late for work. Again.

 

Clarke held her tears. She leaned on the door bracing herself. - Take deep breaths.- she kept thinking. Fighting to keep any other tought from forming in her head. A ragged sob escaped her.  
"Stop it." she scolded herself.  
"Why are you crying mommy?" asked Aden from the hall that leads to his room, his face was sad too. Clarke smiled at him. "Are you sad because she was hurt?"  
"Come here." She said, he ran to her and let himself get engulfed in a hug. She comforted him from what happened a few minutes ago with the scary stranger. With every passing heartbeat, she felt anchored again, to her life, to her purpose, to her son. "It's ok, honey," Clarke looked into his blue eyes and saw how much he trusted her and smiled. "Do you want some pancakes?" His face lit up.  
"With Chocolate chips?" he beamed.  
"And ice cream," she responded.  
"Yay!"

The air was rancid with the smell of her own vomit, she leaned against the wall with one hand, the other was on her left side. It hurt.  
She hadn't registered the pain until she climbed down the stairs. "Damn it.!" What a night it was. She had finished her shift at the station angry at everything, a cold beer was the right call, or so she thought. The usual place was not out of limits. Since her former friend didn't manage the bar on Mondays, there should be no problem.

The bar was warm and familiar, she hated to admit how much comfort it brought to her, the old pictures on the walls, the faded beer posters and that constant smell of beer and cigarette smoke. She sat at the end of the bar next to the phone like usual and proceded to drink and ignore everyone near her, well that was until Robert Forner sat beside her on the bar. At first, she thought he was looking for her, but the man hadn't seen her.  
"Beer," he said to the bartender, he looked like crap.  
She didn't know what to do when she heard Robert crying, there was one thing she could not stand and it was to hear a man cry. She got up slowly trying not to be heard, but of course, her four beers and three shots of Tequila made it quite impossible.  
Her stool fell and the crying man turned to her, he was about to return to his own business went he recognized her.  
His fist flew towards her making contact with her jaw knocking her over other two customers sitting on their stools. Robert went after her pulling her up by the collar, hitting her face again.  
"Did you enjoyed Woods?"  
Yeah, a bar full of cops, what a blast this one was going to be. "Not as much as she did." She responded.  
"You bitch!" He spat ready to hit her again.  
In the last second she blocked his fist, punching him in the guts at the same time, she went for his face several times until both hit the floor with the last punch they gave to each other, but he got up faster than her and with all of his anger kicked her in the ribs. "She left me! Because of you!"  
"What are you waiting for Woods. Stand up damn it!" One of the patrons yelled.  
Woods remained there and let him vent his anger.  
"Hey, at least the kid is yours, man. Unless she..." his fist hit her face hard.  
"You hit her one more time and I'll crack your skull in two." Robert had the tip of a baseball bat next to his right temple in the other end was Nyko Sloan, the bar owner.  
"You are threatening a detective." Responded the angry man.  
"Am I?." He looked around to the other patrons, everyone looked away.  
"Fine," said the wronged husband, he stood from her and fixed his jacket. "Pray I never see you again, Woods," Robert said to her and left the bar  
"Damn it, Woods! You fucked the D.A.!" Yelled a narcotics detective with glee. Everybody cheered.

A shudder crossed her body and she retched on the empty street, she was angry at Robert for not having the guts to kill her, at Nyko for not let him do it, and at herself for not doing it long ago. A car stopped behind her.  
"Ma'am. Are you ok? do you need a lift home?"  
She turned around to the greenest police officer she had the pleasure of meeting. The shock on his face was displayed at the sight of her beaten up features.  
"How do you know that's not where I come from?- she cleaned the corner of her mouth with her sleeve- Never assume a situation that can get someone hurt."  
"I- he shook his head.- Do you want to press charges?" He tried again.  
"No need," She moved her hand into the pocket of her trousers, retrieving her badge. He didn't react. "There goes my bullet," she thought.  
He leaned closer to read the ID.  
"Detective Woods. What happened?"  
Her phone began to vibrate in her jacket, she took it noticing the seven missed calls. "Fuck! Woods. Give me a moment," she indicated to the young man.  
The green officer stood dumbly next to her not sure of what to do. The detective didn't move for a while. He felt shivers at the sudden change in her, from pain to cold fury.  
She put the phone in her jacket again. "Officer, I need a ride."  
"Yes, detective," he moved rapidly to his patrol car.

Clarke looked to her son from atop her glasses, he was playing with his Legos. A wave of dread remained on the back of her head since Marcus contacted her a week ago, fueled by the sudden appearance of Alex Green. She didn't believe in coincidences, but this was too much.

Of all the buildings in this city, she ended up just outside hers. Certainly not what she expected to find when she came home from work.  
It was late, as usual. Aiden was already asleep with Nylah keeping watch over him. Classes were over for the summer and she was anxious to spend time with her little boy. Everything was arranged at the paper for her to take a month off. She had spoken Aden about it and a trip to Arcadia to spend some time with her mother was what they needed.  
There was a slumped figure on the stairs of her building, her first thought was that maybe one of the homeless citizens had claimed that spot for the night. Summer kept the nights warm, so the risk of dying of exposure was low. However, no one should spend the night like that, she walked closer to ask the person if they wanted to go to a shelter. She would call her friend Wells to take them.  
"Hello?" She said getting closer, the smell of alcohol reached her nose. "Oh, God!" she said with alarm at the sight of the stranger's beaten up face. She would definitely call Wells. "It's alright, I'm calling an ambulance, you are going to be ok. Don't worry." she tried to calm the stranger, not sure she was heard.  
"No, no." The stranger, a woman said weakly. "No fisa. I'm... I'm ok... ."  
Clarke went to help the woman who tried to stand up. "You can barely walk."  
"Jok!, I can barely think." Replied the woman with a drunken snort.  
It shook Clarke's memory, those words, she had heard them before. Could this be? "Ok stranger, do you have a name?"  
"I am Detective Lexa Woods. There was someone I needed to help," said the woman with a bit of worry. "I can't…" The woman turned to Clarke and the dim light of the entrance illuminated her face. "You look familiar," said the woman before falling unconscious at the door. Clarke stared at the woman in shock. Alex Green was alive.

Detective Lexa Woods stood in the middle of a bathroom that had seen better days at the end of a severe reprimand from her superior officer.  
"...I'm considering suspending you Detective!" he said for the third time "You show up late, beaten up. You don't answer your calls and on top of it, you are hungover. On a Tuesday morning!."  
She was sure everyone was having a field day on the crime scene, listening to the muffled screams of her Sargeant, it was going to be a long morning.  
Twenty more minutes of yelling later they left the cramped bathroom to the main hall on the eight floors to the now active crime scene. Everyone purposefully avoided looking at them, everyone but her partner Lincoln Evans.

"What the hell happened to you?" Asked Link.  
"That's what happens when you screw someone else's wife," she eyed him severely cutting any other personal questions he might have. He adopted a professional stance.  
"The cleaning service found him this morning- Detective Evans started.- Detective Quint is asking the neighbors if they heard anything, but no one was here last night." He led her to the office through the hall. Two cops guarded the door of the 805, Detectives Evans and Woods showed their badges.  
"Hey there" Becca Starling received them with her customary forensics attire. "Oh, God! What happened to you?"  
"Can we focus on the scene, Dr?"  
"No need to be rude, you know," she turned to her notes. "Leaver temperature suggest he's been dead eight hours." The victim laid on the carpeted floor with a shot on his chest. "That places the time of death between eleven pm and midnight.  
Marcus Kane looked none of what Det. Woods had associated with the man. His once clean and sharp image was now disheveled, he hadn't shaved in what seemed a few days, his clothes were dirty, fingernails not clipped.  
"He was sitting on his reading chair when he got shot," Detective Woods pointed at Kane's chair. The stuffing came out of an entry gunshot, covered in blood, it was facing the door. "I think he knew what was coming." What did the old fool get himself into this time? She wondered.  
"Where's his computer?" Asked Det. Evans  
"Missing. There was a cellphone on his desk, though," added Becca, showing them the evidence bag. "The Battery is dead."  
"And what about him?" asked Det. Woods pointing to the other body right on the middle of the room.  
"That is the one you need to figure out guys," said Becca. "Apparently he shot himself. No ID, we'll check for any other identifiers at the lab."  
"That is if I'm still on the case." Det. Woods thought.

The morning moved slowly in the Griffin household. Aden kept to his toys and Clarke to her thoughts, when her cellphone began to ring.  
"Clarke, everything ok?"  
"Hi Nylah," responded the blonde to her friend on the phone. "Yes, everything is ok. She is gone."  
"Did you call Wells?"  
"No, no need to worry."  
"A beaten up bleeding woman who when missing eons ago should be a cause of worry."  
Clarke remained silent, her mind was moving too fast.  
"I know that silence, Griffin."  
"What silence?." she asked innocently. She went to her bedroom to keep Aiden from hearing her.  
"It's the one that means you're not telling the whole story. Clarke you just started your vacations."  
"I'm not hiding anything!." she defended herself. "I... it's just that..."  
"What?"  
"Nothing."  
"I thought you'll be more pissed off."  
"Oh, I'm pissed." Aden ran to her room.  
"Look, mommy, I finished the Milano!"  
"Nylah, Give me a sec please." she took the plastic space ship with a smile. "Wow Aden, you finished too fast! But wait... Where is Starlord?"  
"He is inside the ship, mommy." Clarke gave the toy back to her son, he was growing too fast. "I'm gonna put it next to the other Avengers," he said leaving the bedroom.  
"Hello?, Nylah?"  
"I'm here," the smile in her voice was evident.  
"Don't worry about us. I'm leaving today to my mom's."  
"Alright, you know I'm here if you need anything."  
"I know, that's why I love you."  
"No need to lie Griffin! Say hi to your mom from me, ok?." said Nylah.  
"I will."

Det. Woods sat fuming at her Captain's office, her face was a collection of bruises, cuts, and bandages courtesy of Forensics Doctor Becca Sterling. She was staring at the document informing her of her two-month suspension from the force and mandatory counseling.  
"Sargent Stone said he was considering it," she said.  
"I considered too, but judging from the report of the police officer that took you to the crime scene this morning… you really need to get yourself together." Responded Captain Indra Hills.  
"The rookie. Jok!" she thought.  
"Also there is the current case occupying the unit and you are to close to this, so this will make it easier for you to stay away."  
"I'm aware of the unit's prowess, but I don't' think this can be solved in less than two months Captain."  
"I know, that's why I requested a temporary reassignment." Det. Woods remained silent. "You'll go to the warehouse."  
"Filling stock?"  
"Yes Detective, you'll be helping with the inventory."

Det. Lincoln Evans was at his desk going over the notes of the crime scene left by his partner, who at the time was clearing up her own desk across from his.  
He was conflicted, on one hand, he knew she needed help to deal with the last five years, on the other one he knew she only had her job at the force to keep her sane and from her father's claim. Lexa hadn't said a word coming out of the Captain's office, leaving her note pad on his desk. "Your handwriting sucks," he commented.  
"Then take out your notes, you were there too," she said without sparing a glance to him.  
Sargeant Stone cleared his throat, Lexa kept taking out files from her drawer, piling them up in three sections: Closed, Cold and Open, suddenly she stayed still with her hand in her bottom drawer, the one Lincoln knew was used for her personal items.  
"You okay?" he asked concerned.  
"Captain is right you know," she said taking out the remaining stuff in record time. "I do need to get out of here." She said tossing some of it in the trash and leaving the room.  
Sarge Stone sighed taking a picture from Lexa's trash bin.  
"I feel for her, Link." He said passing the picture to Link, it was the photo that Lexa kept at her desk up until a couple years ago. He never asked her what happened to the picture when it wasn't on her desk one day. At one time the frame was carefully cleaned every morning, now it had scratches and dents for being kept in a drawer. Behind the cracked glass was Costia Woods, smiling without a care in the world.  
"At least Lexa is not here for this," said Link when he got sight of Mrs. Vera Kane coming down the main entrance to identify her son's body.  
"I'll take care of it," said Sargeant Stone.

"Put your name, date and signature on the dotted line Detective," instructed the armorer from behind the counter. Lexa did as she was told, the box with her belongings was on the floor at her feet. She was leaving her service gun at the precinct, her badge was being held by her Captain to whatever administrative process it had to go through.  
"Detective Woods good thing I found you."  
"Becca," Lexa acknowledged her picking up her box. Her breath caught in her bruised ribs.  
"I found some info on the John Doe from this morning. His name was Victor Thomas, he has a tattoo on his left pectoral muscle just above his heart.- she rambled on.- it's some kind of handprint with a spiral in it. I looked in the database at it belongs to a gang from up north the country with affiliations here in Polis.  
"I'm no longer part of the investigation Becca," Lexa said calling the elevator.  
"What? How?"  
"I'm demoted and suspended."  
"Fuck!"  
"Yeah," she said entering and pressing the button to the ground level floor.  
"if you need anything..." the doctor offered  
"I know. Thank you, Becca." The elevator doors closed with a ding.

Aden kept repacking his backpack for their trip to his grandma, the problem was that he didn't have much room for his legos, the books he was planning on reading and his Spiderman action figures.  
"If you disassemble the Legos you might have better luck."  
"But then I'll have to take the instruction booklets to play at gramma's."  
"I'll get the online versions, what do you think?" suggested his mom.  
"Duh!" he said to himself how he didn't' thought about that one. His mom's phone began to ring.

"Hello Maya, did I left something at the office?" Clarke greeted the general assistant.  
"Miss Griffin, I have Mr. Jaha on the line"  
"Okay, thank you, Maya," responded Clarke, a bit worried at Maya's sad tone of voice. A short beep indicated her call was transferred.  
"Thelonious, is everything alright?" a long sigh escaped her editor.  
"Clarke... It's Marcus," his voice was broken.

Lexa walked into her building stopping by the row of mailboxes, she was digging through her pockets looking for her keys while juggling the damn cardboard box when a man passed by in a hurry and pushed her away. The movement mangled her bruised ribs, making her lose her hold on the box.  
"Urgh! Watch it, you asshole! Jok!." She'll get her stupid mail later.

The building itself was nothing impressive, the majority of tenants where an assortment of childless couples and single professionals who went in an out at all times of the day. The old elevator was so slow many preferred to use the stairs, but today Lexa was in no condition to climb five stories carrying her belongings.  
"Clarke," she thought for the hundred time that day. "How the hell I ended up at her place? What was Clarke doing in Polis?, Was she the artist she wanted to be when they were teenagers? Was she a Doctor, like Clarke's mom? How old was the little boy?" The elevator stopped on her floor, the sound of loud knocking getting her out of her thoughts.  
The man that pushed her in the lobby was at her door. "Can I help you?" the authority in her voice stopped his hand mid-motion.  
"Are you Detective Lexa Woods?"  
"Who's asking?" He left a small white envelope on top of the cardboard box.  
"Wait!"  
He hurried past her.  
Lexa dropped the box and held his jacket. "Stop!" Lexa ordered, he tried to get away. This time the shove was ten times stronger and she hit the wall but she would not let go of the man. "I said, stop it!"  
"Sorry," he said.  
Lexa Woods didn't saw the fist coming towards her head.

If only Anya could see her, she'll give her a bigger ass-kicking than the ones she had received in the last twenty-four hours, followed by an eight-mile run in the cold morning and a three-hour sparring session.  
Lexa stayed on the floor holding her left side, her breaths were shallow. "Calm down," she ordered herself, closing her eyes focusing on all the pain she was feeling, from head to toe. She let it engulf her, her heartbeat picked up, her breath turned ragged, just as it was about to overwhelm her she opened her eyes with one single thought in her head. "Em pleni."

She got herself up from the hall floor, picked up the damn envelope and got her keys from the inner pocket of her jacket. A sharp pain crossed her ribs, but she willed herself to ignore it.  
"Em pleni." She kept thinking while she opened the door, the cardboard box had fallen miraculously on its bottom with all it's contents still safe inside.  
"Em pleni." She pushed the box through the door with her foot.  
"Em pleni." She walked towards her bedroom, the unmade bed on the corner was her only goal, she laid face down feeling the cold sheets calming the pain on her face.  
"Em pleni." She closed her eyes feeling unconsiousness reaching her mind.  
"Clarke." Was her last thought of the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this fic back in October of 2018 after waking up from blacking out in a bathroom in a bar, I can't remember how I got home that night. It was probably one of the dumbest things I have done. 
> 
> So while I was recovering from the hangover and the bruises I got that night, I got to think what the hell I was doing with my life. I needed a distraction and writing turned out to be the perfect solution.
> 
> The idea of this fic has been in my head for quite some time but I never dared to write it down, so I was a bit shocked that I finished the first draft of the entire thing in less than a week. For some reason, I didn't want to upload it first, so it remained in a flash drive for nearly four months before I began to edit it.
> 
> Hope you all like it.
> 
> Comments as always, are deeply appreciated.


	3. Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the kudos, subscriptions and comments.
> 
> :)

Lexa woke up with a shudder, it took her a moment to realize she had woken up to the sound of a door being slammed upstairs and not a gunshot. Cold sweat ran from her forehead, her heartbeat was wild.  
"Damn it!." Her body was stiff, it hurt to even think to get up. She curled her toes noticing she still had her shoes on. Her hands were closed into fists, the envelope in her right hand felt damp with sweat. She braced herself for what was coming.  
"Fuck," she muttered. She was laying on her back now, the stupid envelope wrinkled under her fist. She eyed against the light bulb of her scant bedroom. It better be something worthy of the beating she got that afternoon.  
She broke a side of it, letting whatever it was fall on her chest. Puzzled she took a look at the folded piece of paper. "The hell?" a micro SD Card fell from it. "Shit." It had fallen from her chest to the inside of her jacket. She didn't try to recover it from where it was.  
Lexa got up from the bed, she needed to contact Indra and Lincoln. "Where the fuck is the SD Card?, Great!" She took a deep breath to pick it up from the floor, it took her a moment to recover from the pain from bending down, black spots danced on the periphery of her vision. Slowly she went to the living room and sat on the coffee table. She reeked of alcohol, sweat, and vomit, she got her phone from her jacket, the screen read eight pm, Link should be at the station.  
An impulse hit her, she turned off the phone to put the SD card in it and turned back on, she stared at the phone while it booted up. Her hands were messed up with cuts and bruises, the sight of the tattoo on her left wrist made her cover her entire hands with the sleeves of her dirty henley shirt.  
The phone was back on, she opened an unnamed folder located on the SD card, but it only gave her an error message. She went back to the main screen, the SMS icon showing an alarming number of unread messages, some from Indra, Anya, Lincoln, Audrey… there was one marked as read from last night that stilled her hand.

"Hey, kid.  
It seems I trusted the wrong people.  
Please take care of them.  
M.K."

An address was below it, she got a weird feeling from it, she googled the address, the realization hit her like a truck.

It had taken Clarke a considerable effort to keep herself from breaking down in front of her son. Her conversation with her Editor Thelonious Jaha had been a short one with no details except that Marcus had died in his office downtown and that his funeral was going to be in three days time. This had something to do with the Mount Weather story they were working until a year ago, she was sure of it. But it also could be something else, something that could have happened recently. Her mind went straight to Alex Green. That was too much for being a coincidence.  
"I'm ready, mommy!" Aden had finally been able to fit his stuff in his backpack.  
She smiled at him. "Let's go, honey."  
They went into the elevator, Aden carrying his backpack full of toys, Clarke carrying her's with her laptop, her left hand holding her son and her right one pulling their luggage bag. Five minutes later the little Griffin family was in the underground parking lot.  
"Buckle up buddy!"  
"Yes, captain!" Aden responded, taking charge of his safety belt.  
Clarke let him finish before making sure he got it right. "Well done," she said with a smile closing his door, double checking the trunk was indeed closed, no tail lights were broken that could cause them any delays. She was near the driver door when something caught her attention. She turned towards the stairs, a tall man was looking at them trying to keep his face covered. His stance thicked off, that's when she saw the tell-tale sign of a gun in the man's right hand barely fitting the pocket of the dark jacket. Fear gripped her chest, she hurried into the car not daring to lose sight of the menacing figure.  
"Shit, shit, shit." She started the car keeping the figure in her rear mirrors. "Aden, honey. I need you to put your head down."  
"Why?"  
"Aden, do it!" Clarke regretted her tone of voice as soon as she heard herself. Aden did as he was told. "Everything is ok, honey." She wasn't sure if she said it more to her than to her son.  
This definitely had to do with Mount Weather Labs. She reversed the car when the back window exploded in a rain of glass.  
Clarke was frantic, in her haste to leave the parking lot she hit a car behind her, giving the shooter time to get closer to her door. He was a couple feet from them when another figure intercepted him in full force. Both of them fell to the ground, Clarke was shaking, her son was crying loudly in the back seat. The man was trying uselessly to defend himself to no avail, their savior did not relent. Two more men came running at them from the elevator.  
"Alex!" Clarke called, their savior got up from the beaten up man.  
"Clarke, move!"  
The blonde moved to the passenger seat, barely in time to let Alex get behind the wheel. "Keep your head down, honey" Clarke tried to calm her son, she reached blindly to the back seat resting her hand on his knee. Alex drove them away from the parking lot like a possessed woman.

"Say that again please." Lincoln got closer to the computer screen willing it to make sense, he was alone in the homicides office.  
"I said his file is confidential," Said Dr. Sterling.  
"What do you mean confidential?"  
"Really?" Responded Becca.  
"OK, ok. Sorry. Does it give any info as to why Mr. Thomas file is protected?"  
"No. But I found some interesting marks on him. Besides the cut on his arm."  
"He was a junkie." Lincoln examined the pictures sent by Becca. The john doe had scars on both his arms.  
"Yeah, like ten years ago, but there are recent ones."  
"Maybe he relapsed"  
"Maybe, but he was on something when he died. We still have to wait for toxicology to give us more info."  
"Ok." Lincoln kept scrolling through the file. "Do you have anything about Kane's phone?"  
"It's in the other file I attached."

"Goddamit Link!" Lexa exclaimed frustrated at the phone, his line was busy. She was too shaken up to dial up the office number.  
Clarke kept her head low, her hand still extended towards her son. Lexa checked the rear mirrors, no one seemed to be following them. The city transit began to pile up the closer they got downtown, the boy kept crying alone in the back seat.  
"It's ok, baby," Clarke repeated like a prayer. Lexa turned to a backstreet. "What are you doing?" asked Clarke alarmed.  
"Go to him," said Lexa, turning the lights off, she needed a moment to calm down.  
Clarke went out of the car, the little boy was inconsolable.  
"We need to lay low," said Lexa. "Does anyone knows where you were going?"  
"Yes." Clarke's was shaking. "Everyone, my boss, my friends..." a furrow crossed the blonde's features. "How did you know someone was trying to harm us?"  
"I didn't know exactly." Lexa's voice trembled, the pain in her ribs was getting unbearable. "A friend sent me a message saying that you may need some help." She closed her eyes for a second, cold sweat broke on her forehead and back making her shiver. "How is he?" She asked still gripping the steering wheel.  
"Aden, honey. Did you get hurt?" The boy only shook his head, he kept staring at Lexa. "It's okay, she is here to help." Clarke and Lexa exchanged looks through the rear mirror, Lexa silently asking for Clarke's permission to speak to the boy, the blonde nodded at her.  
"Hey, strikon. I'm not going to let anything happen to you or your mom. Okay?"  
"Promise?" asked the little boy in a whisper.  
"Promise," she responded with a small smile.  
If only Link could answer his damned phone.

"Lexa!" Lincoln was knocking at his friend's door fearing the worst. After hanging up with Becca he got to check the information recovered from Marcus Kane phone. A message sent by him and a returned call from Lexa on the night of his death, a unit was already checking the address from the text message. Lincoln withdrew his gun, "Please sir, open the door." he said to the landlord.  
The man opened the door and stepped back to let the two detectives do their work, the place was empty. He took the scene in front of him.  
"You sure she lives here?" asked Gustus.  
The place had a vacant feeling, not taking into account that most of the stuff was in cardboard boxes.  
"Yes, this is her place." Something was wrong, the lights were on without reason something he knew irked his friend. He and his St. checked the apartment. "She is not here."  
"Store, maybe?"  
"I don't think so." a white envelope almost under the bed got his attention. He took his latex gloves from his back pocket. "Take a picture please."  
"What does it have?" asked Gustus taking his phone out.  
"it's empty," responded Lincoln.  
St. Gustus was about to take the picture when his phone began to ring. "It must be from the address in Kane's text message. St. Stone speaking." His eyes bugged from is sockets. "What?"

"You're really a death wish aren't you?" said Nyko from his desk.  
"Kill me later, I need a favor," Lexa looked like a walking corpse. The dim light of his office didn't help either.  
"About what?" He hoped it was something he could refuse, not wanting to bear the sight of her former friend.  
"Remember when you got that skar?" she asked pointing to his right hand.  
"How to forget it. You gave it to me." He answered wondering what was going on and why she would bring up the scar he got in Arcadia, Lexa looked anxious bleeding profusely from the nose.  
"What is it?" He relented.  
"Come," she said exiting his office walking down the hall going to the back door of the bar. Outside was a stranger's car parked next to the dumpster and trash cans with visible gunshots.  
"My God! Lexa, what the hell happened?" He walked closer. "Holly Shit!"  
"Mind your mouth please," said Lexa from behind him.  
"Hello Nyko," greeted Clarke Griffin from the back seat of the car holding a small boy.  
"Clarke Griffin? I didn't know you guys where in contact again," he said, then a thought entered his mind. "Son of a bitch. Lexa, you were seeing Clarke and Audrey at the same time?"  
"Language Nyko there's a kid here," repeated Lexa. He turned to give her a piece of his mind regarding the way she treated women when Lexa fainted. "Jok Lexa." He caught her effortlessly then turned to Clarke. "Your kid doesn't know Trig right?"  
"No," responded Clarke with the boy in her arms.  
"All right then," he said before expressing his feelings in the backstreet to his former friend in trigedasleng.

"This is bad," said Gustus when they arrived at the scene. The building was surrounded by police cars and the press. "Just what we need,"  
Lincoln remained quiet. They crossed the police line to the parking lot, Inside it was swarming with activity from the techs gathering evidence and documenting the whole scene.  
"Detectives, over here!" They walked towards the tech in charge.  
"Hey there, what do you have?" Inquired Gustus.  
"Glass from a vehicle, three gun shells and tire marks coming from this parking space."  
"Who is it assigned to?" asked Gustus.  
"To a – he checked his note - Clarke Griffin."  
"Gus, Evans," said Det. John Murphy. He was the first on the scene also much to Lincolns displeasure part of their unit. "It seems Woods really got herself in some shit."  
"The fuck you said?" Lincoln finally got out of his quiet thoughts.  
"Easy there," Murphy showed his hands in surrender.  
"Lincoln, a word please," said St. Gustus. He followed him a few cars away from the main scene. "I need you to pull yourself together a man or Captain Hills will get you out of this investigation too."  
"I know. It's just... Murphy got on my nerves."  
"He is an idiot, we all know that. But I need you at your utmost professional today."  
"Yes Sir," responded Lincoln.  
"Good," he offered him a smile  
"I'll go check if there are any cameras down here."

Clarke sat at a chair next to the bed that she assumed Nyko used when he worked late, Aden was on her lap taking everything in, every loud noise made him tremble. Nyko had taken Alex... no, Lexa inside right behind them, he kept sighting to every cut he cleaned from Lexa's face, who was conscious fussing about Nyko's own fussing.  
"So... how did you guys get in contact again," He asked to no one in particular.  
"She spent the night in my apartment," said Clarke checking her son's hair for any cuts or little pieces of glass from the car.  
"What? When?"  
"Last night after you told me you will kick the crap out of me if I ever returned to your bar again," responded Lexa from the bed.  
"Hey! I don't want cops beating each other in here, especially if one of them is not fighting back." He said holding a piece of gauze to Lexa's nose. "What if they close me? What am I gonna do then? Whatever, how did she ended up in your place Clarke?"  
"Long story." Clarke kept her tone as friendly as she could, she wasn't sure how much she could share with either of them.  
"I see." Nyko stood up and got inside the small bathroom attached to the office. The sound of running water startled Aden.  
"Nyko, where is the car?" asked Lexa, trying to stand up, the hem of her shirt got caught in the zipper of her jacket revealing her lower back. Clarke was shocked at the scars that went up to her spine, the tattoo Lexa had when they met in Arcadia was now unrecognizable.  
"I left it on the back alley for everyone to see," he responded sarcastically retuning to the small bedroom. "It's in the storehouse. Listen, Clarke - he turned to her.- Is good to see you. And don't get me wrong I want to help you with whatever is happening, but you need to get out of here. This place is chock full of cops at all times of the day and one of them might be in the payroll of whoever is after you. Right detective?" he glanced at the brunette."  
"Yeah," Lexa sat up. "I need to make a phone call," she said reaching for her jacket.

Lincoln was beside himself, the only camera was the one outside the store in front of the building, and the thing only captured half the entrance, he had watched the video but he could not believe his eyes, there had to be a better explanation.  
St. Gustus and Murphy got inside the store's office, he asked the manager to play the video again.  
"One would have thought that these things will come with an HD image by now," commented Murphy, Lincoln agreed in silence.  
"There she is," Lincoln said. Lexa was running to the parking lot.  
"She has something in her hand," said Murphy.  
"A gun?" guessed Gustus.  
"I don't know," said Lincoln.  
The transit outside the street continued to play on the screen, then a sedan went out nearly crashing with an oncoming taxi. Gustus paused the video to try and check the plates, but the grainy image didn't help, however, the car description matched. Then the car turned to the other line giving them a somewhat clear image of Lexa behind the wheel with a blonde woman on the front seat, who kept her head down by Lexa's hand.  
"It definitely looks like a gun in Det. Woods hand" started Gustus.  
"Why would she kidnap that woman?" Asked Murphy.  
They had reached the same conclusion he did.

"Do you have any idea of how this looks?" Lincoln kept his voice in a whisper.  
"About time you answer your calls," Lexa recriminated, she heard a lot of background noise on Lincoln's end.  
"Start explaining yourself, before you are charged with kidnapping."  
"What the hell are you talking about?" Lexa watched Clarke sitting on Nyko's couch in the office, the door to the spare bedroom was closed, yet she was able to see her through the glass of the closed door.  
"Well, from where I'm standing Marcus Kane did something stupid and got himself killed, so he asked you to get rid of some loose ends."  
"Do you really believe I'll do something like that?" Lexa raised her voice, but the exertion on her ribs made her grimace with pain.  
"I don't know anymore Lexa. In the last few years, you have turned into someone I don't recognize anymore."  
Lexa didn't expect that answer. "They are fine"  
"They?"  
"Clarke Griffin and her son. They are with me on their own.- Lincoln was quiet, so she continued.- from what Becca told me this afternoon, Kane was shot by someone from Azgeda, it was the same people who tried to kill Clarke three hours ago."  
"Then why you are not at the station?" asked Lincoln in a softer voice.  
"You know damned well why. They have half the percent in their pocket. I won't be surprised if there is an order on me too by now." Lexa was finding it more difficult to focus, the headache she felt building up was now piercing her brain.  
"So why are they trying to kill this woman?"  
"I don't know that yet."  
"Your wounds..."  
"I'm taking care of them," and with it, she hung up the phone, she couldn't talk anymore. She was sure she was about to faint again.

Nyko was back at his desk, the door to his spare bedroom was closed, but he still could see Lexa talking on the phone, hanging from the little strength she still had. It had been a long time since he saw a bit of fire in her eyes, he wasn't sure how he felt at that moment towards her.  
"How you've been?" asked Clarke, her son was understandably still holding to her.  
"Good, good. Some days were a bit better than others," he responded with a sad smile.  
"I can't believe you have your own bar," said the blonde with what he would like to think was pride.  
"Yeah, it wasn't easy. But in insight it was worth it," he said puffing his chest a bit. "What about you, does this little fella have a name?"  
Clarke smiled looking down at her son, her hand playing with his hair. "His name is Aden, he is six."  
"I'm almost seven," pointed the boy, Aden. Nyko could not help his smile. "He looks a lot like you."  
"And Alex... Lexa? She doesn't look ok," said Clarke.  
"Well, I'm not in a position to say anything," Nyko moved uncomfortably on his chair. "You should ask her. But what I can tell you is that she had to take on a lot from all sides."  
"I thought she was dead," the hurt was evident in Clarke's voice.  
"It wasn't her idea," he needed a drink. "It was mine."  
"Why?"  
"Do you mind if I have a drink?" he asked his lost friend taking a bottle of whiskey from the desk drawer."  
"Go ahead."  
He poured a small amount a whiskey in a tumbler. "You know why we were in Arcadia right?"  
"Yes, she told me," responded Clarke glancing towards the room were Lexa kept talking on the phone.  
"Well, her old man found out where we were hiding and sent some people after us. Fortunately, a friend told us beforehand."  
"I was there when they towed the car from the sea. They searched for the two of you for nearly a month."  
"I apologize, we didn't want anyone to get hurt, especially you. Her father isn't someone known for his mercy." He felt his breath catch in his throat. "Although I admit that driving a car down a cliff to the sea was a bit dramatic." He was sure Clarke was about to ask another question when the door to the spare bedroom opened slowly, Lexa walked out clutching her left side.  
"We need to go," said the brunette. "Nyko, do you have a car you can lend us?"  
"You're not driving like this," he said concerned.  
"We don't have much time left."  
"Lexa, you need a doctor," Clarke sounded worried. "I have a place where Aden and I can go, you've done enough for us."  
"The people behind this are dangerous Clarke," Lexa was facing the blonde.  
"I know that. That's why I took precautions," argued Clarke.  
"So did Marcus Kane." The silence in the room felt heavy, Nyko sat in silence staring from Lexa to Clarke, both of them holding the other's gaze with determination.  
"What happened to Marcus Kane?" Asked Nyko, their attention turned to him. Lexa looked at the boy in Clarke's arms before speaking.  
"Someone from Azgeda got him."  
"There goes a good friend and customer," Nyko though taking downing his whiskey.  
"He sent you to us right?"  
"Yes," Lexa sat in the chair next to Clarke. "Last night I got a message from him with your address, I think that's how I ended up outside your building." A soft knock interrupted them, then a young woman opened the door.  
"Everything ok, Harper?" he asked.  
"I think you might want to check the news, boss."

Captain Indra Hills' voice resounded in the briefing room of the police station. Every single person was discretely trying to find the guilty party.  
"What part of confidential is so hard to understand?" Her grip on the stand had turned stronger. "All of our chances of having Detective Woods coming to the station have vanished!" Behind her, the TV was on the news channel who keep running their story on the assassination of journalist Marcus Kane and the related kidnapping of former colleague reporter Clarke Griffin along with her son at the hands of Detective Alexandra Woods.

"...It's has been reported that the Detective was suspended this morning due to deplorable behavior and what sources say it's an alcohol problem that last night derived in a bar brawl..." Nyko muted the TV.  
"Kidnaped?" Clarke said from her chair. "This is stupid!"  
"You are the reporter Clarke, you know they need to sell this story," Lexa said defeated next to her. "Someone at the station must have tipped them."  
"What do you suggest we do?" asked the reporter.  
"I could give myself up at the station so you can have time to hide," Lexa suggested.  
"Lexa," Nyko stood from his desk. "Whoever Azgeda has there is gonna get you too."  
"What did Kane have that has Azgeda so interested?" asked Lexa. Maybe, she could bargain with them. Clarke remained quiet, her face a mask of fear.  
"Three years ago Marcus and I were chasing a story on a farmaceutical company that apparently was doing business with both the government and organized crime. We needed access to the accounting files to expose them, so we found someone to help us.  
"Who?"  
"I never knew them, but they gave us access to a lot of information, we wanted to publish some of it, but almost a year ago, our editor pulled the plug on the whole thing. Marcus quitted the next day. We didn't talk much after that until a few weeks ago. He called me saying that it wasn't safe for us anymore. That he had information on some list that was on the files we have.  
"A list?" asked Nyko.  
"Did you see it?" Lexa kept glanced down at the boy who was falling asleep in Clarke's arms.  
"Part of it. It was some kind of amnesty program for gang members here in Polis, a second chance of sorts."  
"Oh Clarke," Lexa's eyes closed in pain.  
"You know about that list?" asked the reporter.  
Lexa got up from her chair, this was not happening. She exchanged looks with Nyko.  
"I'll do all I can," he said leaving the room in a hurry.  
"Lexa. Who's on that list?"  
"My sister," they were as good as dead. 

"I understand your need to help you friend Detective," said Captain Indra Hills from behind her desk. She was standing straight and proud, her uniform perfectly pressed despite the late hour, her stern look directed to Lincoln. "But she is in a lot of trouble right now," she quelled his protest with a hand "I'm proud to say that I know her, and I too believe that we might not be reading the situation correctly, given the little information we have on this case. So I'm asking you again, Have you been contacted by Detective Woods?"  
"Yes," he answered.  
"What did she say?" she asked taking a sit behind her desk, this indeed was going to be a long night.

The car ride was quiet, they had traveled for nearly two hours to a cabin near the river that hopefully could provide them with a chance to regroup and to give Lexa time to rest a bit. Clarke felt the world on her shoulders, but despite the fact that a very dangerous crime organization was chasing her she could only keep thinking that her mother was going to kill her. They had argued for months when she announced her idea of chasing a career in journalism. Abby, her mother had told her right there that she will preferred her to be a starving artist.  
"Thank you again Nyko," Clarke said from the back seat. The big burly man just shrugged from behind the wheel.  
"No need to thank me, Clarke. 'bout time I returned the favor," they both smiled.  
Aden was finally asleep next to her, none of this was fair to him. If something happened to her, she knew that her mother would take care of him, but the idea of leaving him behind was unbearable, So here she was putting their safety in the hands of two people that trusted years ago, but right now were complete strangers to her.  
"It's gonna get a bit bumpy here," warned Nyko before turning into a dirt road. "Hey Lexa, hang in there," he said to the brunette in the copilot seat.  
"Hell!," exclaimed Lexa unable to hold herself still on the seat or to provide support to her bruised ribs. Clarke on her part kept saying sweet nothings to her sleeping boy.

Lexa didn't believe in any kind of cosmic balance, but this was definitely a close one. Her body jolted in the on the seat, she held her torso cursing under her breath, just when she was willing to resign herself to this new existence Nyko stopped the truck.  
"We're here," he announced getting out of the car. "I'll check around."  
"Sure," said Lexa calming herself.  
"You ok?" asked Clarke from the back seat.  
"Yes," she responded following Nyko's trek from the small porch to the back of the cabin. It was a one-story building no bigger than two motel rooms put together. The property was in complete darkness, barely visible under the moonlight. Lexa looked to the sky from her window, the moon was about to be covered by a storm. Her attention went back to the cabin, the interior lights were on, Nyko was walking toward them.  
"All clear!" He proceeded to get Clarke's stuff from the back of the truck. Both women exited the vehicle. "Lexa, can you help me with this?" Nyko called from the back of the truck. Her confusion was evident in her face.  
"I can help you," said Clarke holding her son. "Let me leave him inside."  
"Don't worry Clarke, I'm sure she can manage."  
"Sure?"  
"Absolutely," Nyko reassured her. Lexa walked painfully slow to the back of the truck. "This doesn't make us friends again," he said in a low voice as soon as she got to him. "But she is in a stupid amount of danger and I know only you can help her." He gave her the keys to the place. Lexa remained quiet. "Do you have a gun?"  
"I got suspended, my service gun is at the station."  
"And your personal gun?"  
"I don't carry one," she said, her breathing getting more difficult. Nyko shouldered a duffel bag she knew didn't belong to Clarke.  
"I'll leave this one under your care," he said cryptically.  
"I hope you have a permit for them," she responded.  
"Please." They walked to the cabin, a few minutes later Nyko left.

 

"You sure she got the package?" asked a latin woman pacing her cramped boat. It was docked on the public area of Polis bay.  
"Kinda," responded her partner in crime.  
"Kinda?, That doesn't work for us, Wick."  
"Hey, she put up a good fight, despite being all fucked up," he defended himself.  
"What do you mean fucked up?" she asked.  
"She was beaten up real bad and she reeked of booze. I needed to get out of there before anyone from Azgeda got there. I can't believe you put our lives in the hands of a drunk, Raven."  
"Relax, my contact trusts her," Raven said with confidence.  
"Your contact is dead!" Wick was freaking out, "I say, let's go out to the sea and wait this out."  
Raven Reyes, pondered the idea for a few minutes. If detective Woods had the card as expected, then half her work was done. If she lost it in the scuffle with Wick then they'll have to reach her in a different manner.  
"What if we publish the list?" Wick proposed.  
"Are you willing to be responsible for the death of that many people, Wick?" He didn't say anything. "The point was to bring down Mount Weather Labs not to kill innocent people."  
"They are hardly innocent, and now we have Azgeda up on our asses, we are such great heroes."  
"Fill the tanks and the reserves, I'll get some supplies," said Raven, Wick visibly relaxed. "Then we get the fuck out of here."


	4. Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for all the kudos and comments.

Clarke felt her frustration rising with every minute she spent arguing with Lexa about their sleeping arrangements.

"Alex… Lexa you are beaten up, you need a bed to sleep and to let your ribs heal."

"You can barely fit in the bed with your son Clarke, much less in the couch," responded Lexa, both were standing in the middle of the small living room barely holding it together. "Besides, if someone comes in they have to go through me," said the beaten up woman through clenched teeth.

Clarke wanted to scream, the woman was in awful shape. "At least let me take a look at your ribs," she offered

"I'm ok. I'll just put some ointment from the first aid kit."

"Ok," conceded Clarke. She had forgotten how stubborn Lexa could be.

Two hours later, Clarke was awakened by a low knock on the bedroom door, her companion looked miserable.

"I can't take my shirt off." 

Clarke gave her comprehensive smile. She tucked Aden in the bed and kissed his head, the rain was falling outside in a deluge making the cabin feel damp and hot. She walked towards the bathroom with Lexa following behind. "Take a sit," said Clarke pointing towards the toilet seat. 

Lexa moved slowly bracing her torso.

" I think it's better if I cut the shirt off, so you don't have to raise your arms," Clarke suggested, not daring to point the stains of blood and vomit ruining the gray material.

"Sure." breathed Lexa.

The contrast of the woman she met years ago with the one sitting in front of her was frightening to Clarke. "Let me know if it hurts, ok?"

Lexa nodded closing her eyes.

Clarke proceeded to cut the ruined shirt, her breath caught at the sight of the brunette's torso, she searched Lexa's eyes but she still had them closed. The detective's ribs were imprinted on her muscles visible in an array of bruises and cuts, Clarke cut the sleeves of the henley shirt revealing a tragic tapestry of scars that were in place of the tattoos Lexa proudly sported fifty years ago, the brunette was staring at the ceiling with her head back her lips trembled for a second before Lexa clenched her jaw.

She blinked several times to keep herself from crying while applying the ointment on Lexa's skin. The previous night she had limited herself to clean Lexa's beaten up face as best as she could. The magnitude of what she did for her and her son while injured filled her with gratitude. "Lexa…"

"No need to thank me," interrupted Lexa as if she was reading her thoughts. Lexa looked at her with her intense bloodshot green eyes, all trace of distress was gone from her face.

All of a sudden Clarke felt like she was seventeen again hiding in her parent's bathroom back in Arcadia cleaning a cut near Lexa's hairline. She searched for the tiny scar with her eyes.

~

Thunder cracked across the forest, Clarke jumped accidentally putting more pressure on Lexa's side, the brunette closed her eyes in pain. "Sorry, sorry."

"It's fine," said Lexa in a whisper. The storm kept gaining intensity, they heard Aden crying from the bedroom.

"I'll be right back."

Lexa nodded, watching the blonde go. Her heart was racing, It took all her control not to jump in the bathtub with Clarke under her to keep her from whatever harm the thunder heralded. Her hands began to shake.

"Em pleni," she repeated her mantra trying to control her heartbeat. "Em pleni," she focused on the coldness of the bathroom, the minty smell of the ointment on her skin, the sound of the rain falling against the east side windows, on the muffled voice of Clarke calming her son.

She didn't know how to react to the look the blonde gave her, it was so full of compassion and gratitude. For once in a very long time, she was glad to be alive if only to help someone else, she lost track of time listening to Clarke's soft voice.

"He is asleep again," said Clake quietly entering the bathroom, Lexa gave her a small smile.

"I've never thought I'll ever see it," she commented.

Clarke took the ointment tube from the sink. "What?" asked Clarke rubbing the gel on Lexa's back. She felt the blonde's hesitation tracing the gruesome scars that followed her column.

"You, being a mom," Lexa fought the rush of sadness from coloring her voice.

"He is my world and in light of all this, a career change is in order,"

Lexa felt Clarke's hand lingering on the clean skin on the base of her neck. "His other parent must be worried."

"Finn? hardly," Clarke washed her hands and put the ointment away. "I'll take a look at your face now," she anticipated her refusal. "Don't. Clarke held a hand up.

"Okay."

The stitches Dr. Sterling had given her in exchange of the butterfly ones placed by Clake needed cleaning along with the dried blood on her nose bridge, she wanted to get rid of the lingering taste of blood in her mouth.

"It's a miracle your nose is not broken," commented Clarke. 

Lexa could see Clarke struggling with a thought by the way her eyebrows keep twitching.

"Is there someone you need to contact to let them know you are ok?" Clarke finally asked.

"No," Lexa responded in a flat tone.

"What about Audrey?, Nyko mentioned her…"

Lexa went stiff.

"Ok, I won't bring it up again." Clarke dropped the subject.

Lexa felt like crap a the thought of the D.A. She had met her during a case that was giving her unit some trouble and Audrey had helped them by guiding them with the exact evidence they needed to successfully prosecute the suspect. From then on their encounters had become a weekly occurrence that ended a few days ago.

"All done," said Clarke holding Lexa's face with both hands turning it to one side and then the other. "I know we are in terrible danger but take it easy. Ok?"

"I'll try."

"Let me get something for you to put on," Clarke left for a couple minutes, she returned with a light blue hoodie emblazoned with an Arkadia University patch on the left side. 

Lexa could not help the eyebrow that rose at the sight of the emblem.

"Please tell me you are not a Nightblida," said Clarke clutching the garment.

"Polis University, hurra," chanted Lexa in a strangled voice standing up from the toilet seat.

Clarke smiled and Lexa caught herself from thinking how beautiful Clarke still was. Her resolution to keep the reporter and her son from any harm help her to center a bit her mind and soul.

~

The ongoing storm hit the cabin with all its might. Clarke felt tired but she could not sleep without waking up every couple of minutes in fright that someone might have found them. The burner phone Nyko gave them felt too heavy in her hand. Thunder rattled the room, Clarke yelped feeling a spike of adrenaline surge through her body.

"Mommy…" Aden whispered looking blindly for her.

"Shhh, my boy. I'm here," She held her son close to her with her back to the window praying for the day.

~

Lexa woke up to the smell of coffee and scrambled eggs, her stomach rumbled audibly.

"Your tummy makes funny noises," giggled the boy playing on the coffee table with a smile on his face.

A sense of dejavu invaded the detective. "I'm hungry," she said unsure of what else to say to the boy.

"Mine does it too, but only after I play a lot." his blond hair gave him a halo against the sunlight, he had Clarke's strong chin.

"What do you like to play?" Lexa asked. She tried to ignore her bladder and the pain that kept her company for three days now.

"That I'm Starlord," Aden answered.

Lexa's looked at the boy in confusion. "What's a Starlord?"

The look of disbelief on the boy's face her gave her pause.

"You don't know Starlord?" Aden asked in disbelief.

"Prepare yourself, Detective Woods, for you are about to be taught all things related to the Guardians of the Galaxy," Clarke announced dramatically from the kitchenette. "Aden, breakfast is ready. Wash your hands and help me set the table," she walked to them "The forks and napkins are on the counter."

"Ok." said the boy he took one of the toys with him an putted it on the table.

"How're you feeling?" asked Clarke sitting on the coffee table checking Lexa's face wounds.

"I'm ok," Lexa said nonchalantly, but she received a raised eyebrow. "Sore, but a bit better. How is he?" she asked gatthering her strength to raise from the couch.

"He jumps at loud noises, and he's been asking who were the bad people from yesterday, why we are not at my mother's and who is the big man who brought us here." Clarke helped Lexa sit on the couch.

"Those are a lot of questions." Lexa steadied herself on Clarke's shoulder.

"He is six. This is nothing compared to a regular day." Clarke held her forearms, "I told him that we needed to say here with you, to take care of your ouchie."

"Ouchie?" Asked Lexa, standing slowly.

"Your wounds," clarified the young mother helping Lexa stand up, Aden was doing what Clarke asked him to. "Also that you sent the bad men away."

"Oh." Lexa wasn't so sure about that statement, but what else could they tell the boy without scaring him more. "Has anyone called?"

"No." Clarke guided her to the bathroom. "I'll be right here, tell me if you need help," she said from the door."

"I will, thanks." Lexa closed the door not wanting to see how bad her ribs looked.

~  
Lincoln had heard about the place back in the station many times before, but he never felt the urge to check out Nyko's bar, he had grown up with an alcoholic father that put him away from any kind of alcohol.

Several patrons were nursing large beer mugs filled to the brim with the amber liquid, the smell was staggering, but they needed to find Lexa and they need it to find her fast.

"So she hasn't come here?" asked Lincoln to the bartender, a young woman blonde woman who had an uncanny ability to dodge his questions. "What was your name again?"

"Harper. And no, she hasn't been here since Monday night." She cleaned the levers of the many brands of beer they offered.

"And your manager, Nyko. Where is he?" He asked feeling Gustus large figure standing behind him.

"He gets here until noon. He was here last night working late going over the books," she answered moving to begin to arrange the paper coasters in neat piles next to the beer mugs.

"I see. Do you mind if we check the back office?" he asked.

"Do you have a warrant or probable cause?" responded the bartender with a polite smile.

"Thank you for your time," said Lincoln leaving the bar with St. Gustus. They went out of the building to the cold street. A light breeze dampened their coats, some retired police officers greeted them. They both walked to the backstreet, it was clean.

"This is not normal," said Gustus. "Not a single trash bag, a piece of paper or broken bottle on the floor" 

"He is hiding her, maybe the bartender didn't see Lexa, but I bet he did." Lincoln stopped at the warehouse door. "Gustus, look." He pointed at the floor a minuscule shard of glass was there.

Gustus got his tweezers and picked up. "It's too thick to be from a broken bottle. It could be from any car of the dozens that get robbed in this area. But in any case..." He placed it in a plastic evidence bag. 

Lincoln tried to open the steel door just in case it was unlocked, when that didn't work he tried the bar's back door, at the same time Harper open it.

"Really?" she was holding a trash bag. 

Lincoln said nothing. The bartender went to the trash cans and placed the trash bag in. "I'll leave it open so you guys can go through it."

"No need to be sarcastic," said Gustus, his booming voice sounded all over the back alley.

"I'm just helping Polis P.D. finest," she went back to the bar locking the door behind her.

~

It felt just as bad as it looked or so thought Lexa. She let her eyes wander through her reflection. Hef left brow was swollen, her right one had stitches, her nose bridge had a cut, both her eyes were bruised and the left one had blood on the inside giving her a sinister look. Her left cheek was scraped and her lower lip was split. 

She lifted her head, her neck had bruises some were made by Audrey while having sex and the other ones by Robert while he got her at Nyko's bar. "No wonder Clarke kicked me out yesterday from her apartment," she thought, with a heavy sigh she opened the zipper of the hoodie. "Jokken."

"Everything ok?" asked Clarke from outside the bathroom.

"Yeah, I'm just washing my hands." Her body was a rainbow of bruises and hideous old scars. She closed the zipper and proceeded to wash her hands minding her scrapped knuckles. "I need a shower," she said going out of the bathroom. 

"After we have breakfast?" Clarke helped her to the table.

"Yeah."

The table was set and the boy was seated playing with his toy figure of Spider-man.

"Good job Aden," said Clarke.

The boy beamed at his mother. 

Lexa sat on the chair facing the door. The main part of the cabin held the couch, an old TV and DVD set under it. A small round table and the kitchenette were on the back, on the left side of the room was the little hall that leads to the bedroom and across it was the bathroom door.

The detective counted the windows. One on the living room and one on the bedroom at the front of the cabin, a small one at the end of the hall, another small one in the bathroom and one above the kitchenette sink. No backdoor.

She was pulled out of her thoughts by the stares she was getting from her companions. 

"Are you ok?" asked Clarke.

"Sha, I spaced out."

"We noticed," she served breakfast to her son and then Lexa. "Want some coffee?"

"Yes, please." She took a deep breath while Clarke served it in a chipped mug, she took a small sip feeling the warmth spreading through her tired body.

"Still no sugar, eh." Commented Clarke with a smirk.

"Never." It helped a lot.

"So... Aden, want to tell Lexa who Starlod is?" The boy didn't need to be told twice and he started to talk about his favorite characters between spoonfuls of eggs and drinks of boxed orange juice. 

Lexa purposefully paid attention to the boy, putting all thoughts of danger and death away.

~

Lincoln was marveled at the office he was in, it had tall ceilings with a marble floor, the bookshelves in dark tones of wood contrasted to the white walls. The huge windows faced the Polis Bay. However, he kept a professional semblance, sitting across the woman he and Gustus were interviewing.

Nylah Merchant, Sales Director of one of the most important trading companies in Polis and close friend of missing Reporter Clarke Griffin.

"I knew I should have insisted her to call the police." She lamented wiping away the tears. In her hand, she held a plushie Spider-man. "And now that crazy woman has her."

Gustus sent him a warning glare.

"Do you know why she went to Ms. Griffin's apartment last night?" Gustus took charge of this interview.

"No, Clarke said she was passed out on the building door, that she needed help."

"Does Ms. Griffin offers shelter to other people?"

"Not at her place." A faint smile crossed the woman's features only to be replaced by sorrow. "She helps anyone that needs it. Sometimes she calls her friend Wells, he volunteers at a shelter. But this time she kept telling me not to call anyone."

"What you were doing in her apartment?" asked Lincoln.

"I watch Aden sometimes when she has too much work."

"Are you in a relationship with Ms. Griffin?" Lincoln wondered why would someone in her position take care of a child that wasn't hers.

"I was, but that didn't work. I'm happy to consider her a good friend." Nylah said with a bittersweet voice.

"I see Ms. Griffin's son Aden spends time here too," Gustus added.

"Yes, he does."

Lincoln felt bad for the woman, she obviously loved the Griffin family. "Did Ms. Griffin mentioned if there was someone with any reasons to harm her or her son?"

Nylah began to cry, her quiet sobs rendered her speechless. She shook her head "no". 

"I'm sorry but I need to ask you if you are aware of the passing of her colleague Marcus Kane?" asked Gustus, who seemed ready to stand up to comfort the distraught woman.

"No, she didn't mention it. But what she did say was that Alex Green was supposed to be dead back in Arcadia."

"Alex Green?" asked Gustus turning to Lincoln.

"Lexa, she means Lexa," he responded. He was finally aware of how little he really knew his friend.

"Thank you so much for your time, Ms. Merchant," said Gustus standing up from his chair. He thanked the assistant who had remained at the door, Lincoln followed him.

~

Clarke was amazed at how different this morning was to the previous one, Lexa paid serious attention to Aden, asking questions here and there keeping him going, his face didn't show the fear of the night before.

"How many infinity stones they have to find?" Asked Lexa finishing her breakfast.

"Six," responded Aden launching himself to explain each an every one of their properties and powers.

"I wish you were this passioned about school." Clarke couldn't help the comment.

"School's boring," said Aden picking up from where he left.

An hour later he was back playing with his toys, this time at the little hall away from the big window at the request of Lexa.

"I need to check the perimeter," said the detective sitting at the table, drinking her second cup of coffee.

Clarke was doing the dishes. "I'll go with you," she rinsed her soapy hands.

"Clarke…" said Lex in frustration.

"You can barely walk, and how are you going to manage the stairs?" the fear was back in her voice. "What if they are waiting for you to leave us?"

Lexa stood up on her own and walked towards Clarke. "Move the rug please."

She heard the strain in the brunette's voice, Clarke lifted a side of the stained rug. She had taught it weird for it to be in the middle of the small kitchenette. An iron pull was flushed to what it now was a very evident trap door.

"The counter and the walls are reinforced, the wood is just to cover the steel." Lexa pointed to the small living room with her hand. "The windows are made out of plexiglass, but they won't hold too many impacts."

Clarke stared at the brunette, remembering exactly what Lexa was running from all those years ago.

"Open it."

Clarke pulled the trap door. Cold dry air chilled her skin, the light coming from the window revealed a small stairwell.

"If something happens, take Aden with you. There is a big red locker, behind it is another door, it will lead you to the river." Lexa leaned on the counter. "I'm not sure if Nyko's boat is still there. If it is, follow the river. It will take you to the nearest town."

"Won't we call attention to us in a boat?" She was scared just like the night before.

"Don't think so. These parts are full of fishers this time of the year." 

Clarke felt tears in her eyes. "Lexa..."

"You'll be ok, I promise."

Clarke watched the detective move to small bookcase next to the couch. She pulled a set of keys from her dirty jacket draped across the couch arm. Her breath caught at the sight of the gun the detective took from a safe in the bookshelf hidden behind a row of fake books.

"Here.- said Lexa giving her the cabin keys. "Lock the door behind me and don't open it until I tell you it's safe."

Clarke nodded missing the somewhat relaxed atmosphere from breakfast.

~

Lexa waited for the click of the door lock to load the handgun. The small porch only offered a limited view of the terrain, she breathed in the smell of the rain clinging on the pine trees, the distant sound of the river was drowned by the sound of the birds singing around the cabin.

If someone were to shoot her they would have done it by now, she took off the safety on the gun walking to the wooden stairs. They needed a car, they needed to know what was happening back in Polis. 

She got to the stairs going down slowly, gripping the handrail with enough force to hear it crack under her hand. The terrain was unleveled and slippery from the rain, Lexa cursed her busted ribs and proceeded to walk around the house.

~

Clarke lost sight of the brunette from the living room window so she got to the bedroom. 

"Where is Lexa, mommy?" Aden watched her peeking through the window then going out to the hall window, she then proceeded to the one in the bathroom followed by the one in the kitchenette. "what is that?"

"It's a secret room, honey. Stay there," Clarke could no longer see the detective, her heart was on her throat trying to calculate how long it will take the brunette to reach the front of the house. She stared at the only wall with no windows.

"Mommy. Is Lexa a spy?"

"No honey, she is a Police Detective."

"So she is one of the good guys. Right?"

Clarke hugged her son, the cabin's keys clutched tightly in her right hand. "Yes, she is." She hoped so. Both of them jumped at a bump against the wall. Long excruciating minutes passed when the detective's voice called from the front door. Clarke went to unlock it.

"Everything ok?" she asked relieved to see Lexa.

"Yes, it is." the brunette didn't enter the house, she removed the clip from the gun and the bullet from the chamber.

"We heard a noise." Clarke wondered why Lexa didn't come in yet.

"I- I slipped." She said placing the bullet expertly back in the clip.

Clarke glared at her.

"I don't want to scare him more," she said still outside the house signaling to the gun in her hand.

Clarke nodded in understanding. "Aden, honey. Can you help me in the bedroom?" She gave Lexa the cabin's keys back and left the living room with her son. 

They took that moment to make the bed and put away the clothes from the day before, by the time she was back in the living room Lexa was drying the dishes, no sign of the gun or the secret room.

~

"Care to explain who is Alex Green." Said Gustus from behind the wheel. 

Lincoln was tired, he didn't get too much sleep the previous night. The worry of not knowing where Lexa was kept adding to his stress.

"It's an alias she used the first time she hid from her father," he answered. Remembering the drunken tidbit of information his reserved friend shared a few years back.

"Did she tell you where she hid?"

"No, but I guess it was in Arcadia. Where it seems she met Clarke Griffin."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will be updated on June 7th 2019.
> 
> :)


	5. Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back!

The cold wind entered the bathroom through the small window pushing out the vapor from the shower Lexa took. Rain splashed on the windowsill breaking into smaller droplets that drained down the tiled walls of the shower, mixing with the condensed water. Lexa took a deep breath to get a wif of petrichor but all she could smell was the minty balm Clarke was applying to her beaten up body. 

 "You scrapped your back when you went out there," whispered Clarke giving her a stern look.

"I didn't feel it," Lexa responded. She sat on the toilet cover with a towel wrapped around her waist, enjoying the contact. It wasn't the lustful or angry contact she had got used to. It had been a long time since she was taken care of like this.

 Clarke's hands kept moving across her back, the feeling of her fingers fading in and out as she applied the balm on her scars. Her ribs however kept making themselves known with every breath she took. "Sorry," said Clarke when she began to rub the ointment on the biggest bruises on the sides of her torso.

Lexa blinked the tiredness from her eyes, the shower not only had washed the smell of vomit and blood, it took her energy too. Clarke held her left arm to check on the dark bruise on the forearm, it showed the imprint of a straight edge, she didn't know when she got that one. Probably it was from the fight at the bar or whatever happened between that and waking up on Clarke's couch.

"Nearly done." Clarke sat on the edge of the bathtub wiping the ointment from her hands with a damp towel. "Have you had any headaches today?" she asked lifting Lexa's face to the lightbulb holding the towel wrapped on her hair.

 "Yes, but I'm not sure if they are from any hits I got or the hangover." Lexa let Clarke move her face down again.

"Your pupils respond to light, that's good." said Clarke patting the stiches on her face with the corner of the towel. The wind began to blow in the direction of the window splashing the rain everywhere Lexa shivered in her spot, Clarke reached to the window and closed it. 

"How are you feeling?" Clarke asked for the hundred time.

 "I'm tired," she admitted.

 

~

 

"Let me get you something to sleep in," Clarke said getting out of the bathroom before she broke down in front of Lexa. She closed the bedroom door taking deep breaths, her son slept in the bed undisturbed by the thunder less rain.

When the police took out Lexa's car from the sea back in Arkadia she had dreaded to be called to identify Lexa's body or Nyko's, but they were never found. Nights later the uncertainty of their fate brought her nightmares of Lexa washing up on the shore, they had kept her from going back to the beach a couple miles from the cliff and eventually it drove her off from town. She knew they were running away from something terrible, years later in the stillness of the night, she prayed their deaths had been quick, hoping they didn't suffer.

 Clarke wiped her tears with the back of her hand. The scars on Lexa's body told a story far worse that drowning in the sea.

"I was checking on Aden," she explained retuning to the bathroom. Her breath catched seeing Lexa fighting to keep herself upright.

"How is he?" asked Lexa sitting a bit straighter, the towel on her head began to fall.

"He hasn't moved," Clarke said undoing the towel on Lexa's head drying her dark hair with slow motions. "How long can we stay here?"

"Nyko tends to leave this place ready to hold for about a month without any mayor supply runs." Lexa's voice was relaxed. "If we are frugal, we can stretch it up to two more weeks ." 

"How frugal?"

"Not turning the TV on or using the washing machine under the sink." Lexa let her put on the light black hoddie Clarke packed for her annual walk to the cliff in Arkadia. "We'll need to eat smaller portions, not your son of course. Not use too much water."

"We'll figure it out," said Clarke offering a pair of shorts to Lexa.

"I'll think of something, don’t worry." Said the detective declining her help to put on the shorts with a small shake of her head. "I got it."

 

~

 Lincoln took a deep breath facing his partners and Captain.

"Ok, so. Lexa left the bar to the store located two blocks from there," he said pointing to the stills he got from the surveillance video.

"What did she get?" Asked Indra.

"A bottle of whiskey," said Murphy.

"A small bottle of whiskey," corrected Lincoln. "She turned here to her building," he pointed to the map where Lexa's building had a red pin on it.

"Kane's text message was sent about ten minutes later," added Quint. "We found some footage of her passing the bank here- he pointed to the map- and then walking back in direction of Miss Griffin's apartment."

"Here she is outside the building." Lincoln played a video from the same store on the other side of the street that captured them running away.

He couldn't look at the image of his friend passing out on the street waiting for Clarke Griffin to show up, he knew she had a problem, but he never thought it'll be this bad.

"There is Miss Griffing helping her in," said Gustus looking just as sad. "And here- he paused the video – look at this man." He signaled to Indra before playing another one from the following night.

"She saved their lives, twice." Lincoln said.

"That supports her story," Indra said. "We keep this under wraps," she said standing up."

 "What?" Lincoln protested. "She is innocent!"

"We don't know what’s really going on," Indra's commanding voice filled the room. "Until then, we keep this to ourselves."

"Ok," said Murphy gathering his stuff. "What about Clarke Griffin's mother?"

"What about her?" Said Gustus.

"She's downstairs waiting for you, Captain."

"Escort her here." She ordered to him. "Next time let me know immediately."

 

~

 

Abby Griffin paced the small waiting area at the Police Station, she passed the man talking on his cellphone leaning on broken public phone still mounted on the wall. Two steps later she was next to an old lady in a wheelchair draped in a brown chawl. A police officer leaved the front desk pulling his pants up from the belt before entering the hall marked as restricted area.

From that same hall came a woman in a red vest and blue dress pants looking for someone. Abby clenched her purse ready to be called. The woman shacked her head "No" to the officer that went out after her going back where she came from, the officer remained at the entrance of the hall with suspicion in his eyes.

 She thought it was another of Finn's attempts to win Clarke over, her mind raced with possible outcomes if those two seeing each other again. Her biggest worry was her grandson, Aden. When she arrived at Polis to the news that her daughter had been kidnaped by Lexa Woods, better known in Arkadia as Alex Green. Abby was ready to tear the city down just to find her daughter and grandson.

The cold wind from the street got in the waiting area along with a young woman pulling a kid with one hand and carrying a baby with the other. Abby was going to move aside to let the woman take a seat when an officer pulled the young mother to a side and begin to speak with her, after a couple minutes she went in to the Restricted Area. Abby resumed her pacing, the clock atop the front desk marked eleven-thirty pm. 

"Dr. Griffin?" called a detective with a look of impatience from the entrance of the hall.

"It's me," she said walking to him.

"Come with me," he ordered.

She followed the detective through the many halls of the Police Station to an open plan office space in the third floor. They walked in the middle of the six desks littered with folders and loose sheets of paper, except for the one near the door she was being led to. Abby slowed her steps to re-read the name on the small plaque.

"Dr. Griffin, thank you for your patience." said a woman going out of the office. "I am Captain Indra Hills."

"Where is my daughter and grandson?" Abby demanded with a clipped tone that usually made her residents cower in fear.

"We are working tirelessly to find them Dr. Griffin," responded the Captain with a calm that didn't match the urgency of the situation. They went in the office.

"I can't believe you let that woman become a police officer, much less a detective!" Abby wanted to go out to get that plaque on the abandoned desk to hurl it at the stoic woman. "Don't you check who you hire?" she shouted.

"We are aware of Detective Woods family and the rumors regarding them," said the Captain. "But we cannot deny a chance to serve to those with the vocation like the one Detective Woods is known for."

"Is everyone here stupid?" Abby didn't care what the composed Captain think of her. "I need to find my daughter and my grandson, she has them!" 

"I ask you Dr. Griffin, to pay no heed to the information the media has given." said the Captain extending her hand to one of the chairs.

Abby didn't move, the Captain either.

"I believe that it isn't fair to make you go through the anguish of thinking that your family have been kidnaped."

"What?" Abby waited, wondering what the hell did her daughter got herself into this time.

"What I'm about to tell you Dr. Griffin is a confidential matter." The Captain said. "We have reliable information that they went away on their own."

"Who told you this?"

"Detective Woods," said the Captain lifting her chin.

"You got to be kidding me!"

"We verified the information-"

"Bullshit!"

Finally the stone-cold Captain reacted raising her eyebrows just a little.

"This city is a nest of rats, why did my daughter choose to live here is something I'll never understand, and they got her now, and you're all protecting the one responsible."

"That's enough Mrs. Griffin. I understand your anger-"

"No, you don't." Abby left the office blind with fury determined to find her daughter and grandson herself.

 

~

 

Lexa wasn't eating, that kept Clarke from sleeping.

"Close the door behind me," said the detective giving her the keys. She keeping her hands moving to hide the tremors Clarke had already noticed.

Clarke locked the door holding on to all the things she wanted to say to the stubborn woman, bruised ribs needed rest, not going out to the woods every morning looking for who knows what. She left out a huff watching through the peephole as Lexa walked down the porch stairs.

"Mommy, Lexa didn't eat breakfast," said Aden from the hall where Lexa asked him to wait. 

"She has an upset tummy," said Clarke with a reassuring smile.

"We have to take her to the doctor," he said as a matter of fact.

Clarke sighed "That's not possible honey, we don't have a car."

"We can call her big friend with your phone," he suggested.

 "I'll give her something for her stomach, if that doesn't work we call her friend," said Clarke ruffling his hair as she made her way to the window in their bedroom to check on Lexa. With not much to do in the cabin, she would keep watch on the detective in case her withdrawal got worse.

 

~

 

Lexa walked around the cabin looking for any disturbance on the foliage, or footprints in the mud. So far, the only thing she found were deer tracks. With shaking hands, she checked the safety on the gun to make sure it was on, she didn't want to fire it by accident.

"Damn it!" she said with a shiver that announced the beginning of the worst part of not drinking. It was an all familiar thirst that started the previous morning, Clarke's delicious coffee was not enough to curve her need.

She cut the perimeter check short.

"I need to check our supplies," she said going back in to the cabin. Sure, that Nyko always stocked a bottle of whiskey. She just had to take the edge off so she could think of a way to get out of this mess with Azgeda.

 "Do you want me to help?" asked Clarke.

 "No need," she said putting the gun away in the safe. "I'm going to take these down stairs too." she said ignoring the pain from bending down to pick up the duffel bag Nyko had entrusted her.

 Lexa pushed herself forward opening the trap door by herself, then descended the stairs of the escape room hearing Clarke ask Aden to help her with something in the bedroom. She needed that bottle, two people depended on her. 

 She froze as she foot set on the concrete floor.

 The last time she had been there she was going in and out of consciousness nearly dying of blood-loss. Nyko and Luna got her out of the warehouse where after her kru had vanished her. She could not remember the trip to the cabin, only the sway of the boat making its way through the river from Polis Bay to the cave that lead to spot she was standing. It had been the last time she saw her sister.

 The sound Clarke's voice upstairs got her out of the bad memory, with renewed purpose she placed the duffel bag on a work bench and set to the stocked shelves. She searched the place aching and thirsty, the all-consuming need to find the smallest amount of alcohol waged war with her increasing shame of not being able to control herself.

"Jok, Nyko!" Lexa hit the concrete wall with her fist, the damned place was clean. She reached the first aid container at the back of the room where the gurney she had bled on was folded under a canvas tarp.

She sighted in relieve at the kit's contents.

 

~

The smell of rubbing alcohol emanated from the trap door to the kitchen in small wisps that diminished with the breeze coming from the window above the sink.

Clarke went downstairs with her stomach in a knot of fear. The place was just as big as the cabin, and surprisingly dry. At the back of the large room was Lexa sitting atop a plastic container with her face buried in her hands.

"Hey," she said reaching out to touch her shoulder, praying that Lexa didn't do anything stupid. The detective didn't move. "Lexa," she called to the woman, the smell of the rubbing alcohol was overwhelming, she looked around for the source noticing the exploded plastic bottle on the ground next to a pile of stuff covered with a canvas tarp.

"Mommy?" called Aden from the kitchen.

"Stay there honey," she told her son.

"I dropped it," said Lexa, her haggard expression telling Clarke something different. "It slipped from my hand."

"What's the longest time you have been without drinking?" asked Clarke.

"Five weeks," responded the detective. "That was- three years ago, I need to - If want to sleep at all."

"Let's go upstairs." Clarke offered her hand.

"I - he can't see me like this," she begged. "I don't want to scare him."

Clarke was at a loss, she agreed with Lexa, but she couldn't leave her dwelling in the basement.

"Mommy?"

"Not seeing us is scaring him more," she said cradling the detective's face. A few years ago, this was the perfect way to calm Lexa down. The detective closed her eyes at the contact, that still worked.

 

~

 

Lexa let Clarke guide her out of the escape room to the small kitchen, she avoided looking to the boy in shame.

“Let me get you to bed,” said Clarke stirring them towards the hall.

“No, I’ll take the couch.”

“You’ll be more comfortable on the bed,” argued Clarke.

“I- Lexa gagged with the words she didn't want to admit. “I can be trusted being in my own head right now,” she said.

“Alright,” said Clarke helping her to the couch. “Honey help me with Lexa’s pillow.”

Aden ran to the bedroom to grab the item, Lexa smiled at the boy half covered with the large item peeking from above to see where he was going. He left it on the couch giving it a light pat.

Lexa leaned down with the room spinning, she put her left foot on the ground seeking a point of reference, so her head could find balance. She opened the eyes at the hand touching her clammy forehead.

"You are getting a slight fever."

"I just need to rest for a bit," Lexa whispered. It was eighty percent mental strength she thought, aware of how dangerous her state was. "I'll be ok."

"Lex."

Lexa looked to the living room window to the voice she hadn't heard in more than six years. "No-" she focused on the light curtain. The shadow of a woman walked from one side of the window to the door, Lexa looked at the gap under the door where two distinctive feet blocked the sun. In a blink the gap was clear.

"Lexa."

Her lips trembled overwhelmed with the voice calling her. She willed herself to stay calm, to stop reacting to the voice that kept saying her name. "There is a leather coin holder in my jeans," said Lexa to a worried Clarke.

"Here." Clarke pressed the worn little bag into her hand.

Lexa clutched the material feeling the two gold bands in it, the voice kept calling her name.

 

~

 

"I'm calling Nyko." Clarke reached for Lexa's leather jacket where they kept their cellphones.

"Give me a couple hours." Begged Lexa with her eyes forced closed. "This will pass," reassured her. "Just a couple hours."

Clarke looked from Lexa to Aden thinking of what to do, she was terrified of Lexa having a seizure, but on the other hand she wasn't sure who might be watching them, waiting for them to make a mistake.

"Help me with the dishes?" She asked to her son.

"Can we race bottle caps in the sink?"

"Sounds fun," she said adjusting the pillow under Lexa's head. "But we have to stay quiet, Lexa needs to rest."

"Ok," he said getting close to the detective. "Howler if you need anything," he told Lexa.

"Mochof, strikon." Said Lexa closing her eyes again, her pained face relaxed a bit.

Clarke grinned at her son repeating the words she said to him when he was sick.

 

~

 

"I'm an idiot!" Said Nyko tossing the rag on the bar top.

"Everything ok, boss?" Asked Harper cleaning the recently vacated tables.

"Yeah," he lied.

He went to his office to curse in peace for not leaving something for Lexa to ease her over sobriety. However, nothing warrantied she wouldn't drink it all. "Beer," he said going to the warehouse.

"Hey, man." said Quint standing outside the back door.

"Quint," he acknowledged the detective. "The usual?"

"Not today. Where's Lexa?"

"I don't know," he said returning to the bar.

"Come on man, don't play with me." The detective blocked his path to the bar. "We all know you are the only person she would go to for help."

Nyko turned to the detective. "Out of the record?" He asked lowering his voice.

"Yeah,"

"Fuck you," he said returning to clean the bar.

 

~

 

Clarke took a minute to imagine she was back in her apartment making dinner, listening to Aden practicing his reading. If it had been a regular night, she'll be getting a call from Wells asking if he could join them for dinner in exchange of bringing dessert.

"I've finished the chapter," said her son from the coffee table. He had asked her if he could stay by Lexa's so she didn't think she was alone when she woke up.

"You did great," she congratulated her son. "Now, put your book back in your bag and wash your hands." Clarke turned off the stove and crossed to the living room. 

"Okay," he rolled his eyes at the washing his hands part. "Lexa is still sleeping."

"Do we wake her up for dinner?" Clarke asked the boy.

"I dunno." Aden left with his book.

"Thanks, buddy."

"I'm awake," said Lexa blinking. "I was listening to him."

"You did?"

"Yeah, he kept me distracted." Lexa put the coin holder in the hoddie pocket.

It picked Clarke's curiosity. 

"Dinner is ready," she said.

 

~

 

It was hard for Lexa to imagine why the news of not having to take a shower everyday would make Aden so happy, either way she was glad that the boy wouldn't suffer their attempt at saving water.

"It's only while we're here," said Clarke. "Understood?"

"Yes!" said the boy.

"Tomorow you will shower," she reminded the boy.

Lexa ate slowly fighting the nausea and the pain that kept increasing, on the bright side, she was eating homemade food for the first time in years, boxed mac & Cheese never tasted so good. 

"Who is that?" she asked Aden, pointing to the Lego figure on the table with them. Ignoring the voices that kept calling her name.

"This is Thor," Aden answered. "He's the god of thunder-"

 

~

 

Clarke loved to hear her son talking with unbridled excitement about the things he liked, she had made it a priority to make it safe for him to speak without fear of being yelled at. Of the many regrets she had so far, staying with his father for as long as she did was the top one.

"He uses the Mjolnir to-" he turned to her.

"Channel," helped Clarke.

"-to channel his power, but he doesn't really need it. Only to fly."

"My superhero knowledge is limited to Teenage Mutant Turtles," shared Lexa.

"I like Mike," said Aden. "But my favorite is Donnie," Aden ate another spoonful of mc & cheese before asking. "Did you know that they have the names of rena- " he made a funny face struggling with the word. "-rena-something artists?"

"They do?" asked Lexa. Her leg bouncing.

Aden nodded after Clarke raised an eyebrow for talking with his mouth full. "Mommy has one of their paintings in the kitchen at home."

The look of shock in Lexa's face was a welcomed change from the constant grimace.

"It's a calendar with Renaissance paintings on it."

"Oh, right." said Lexa making a small mountain of pasta on her plate.

Clarke had forgotten the brunette used to do that with her food when she ate.

"I remember when you used to paint."

Clarke recalled the constant smell of the oils and gouaches she loved to work with back in high school, it didn't matter how careful she was she would always end up with paint somewhere on her face or on her hands. It was Lexa wiping a smudge of Prussian blue from her nose that lead to their second kiss.

She cleared her throat putting that memory on pause, she would revisit it sometime later but not while her son was next to her or they were in mortal danger.

"You paint?" asked Aden looking at her.

"I did. A long, long time ago," she said. 

"Your mom is very talented." said Lexa with conviction. "I still have one of her drawings," said Lexa with the fork halfway to her mouth.

"What was it?" Asked the Aden curious.

"Me," answered Lexa.

Clarke noticed the slight twitch in Lexa's eyes of something crossing her mind before putting her fork down. She didn't eat anything else.

 

 ~

 

If she kept most of her weight on her left foot the pain on the right side of her torso diminished, but that strained her neck.

"I got this," said Clarke for the tenth time scrubbing the plates they used.

"I can't just watch you do everything here," said Lexa going at the difficult task of drying the inside of the plastic cups without touching the rim with her raw knuckles. With a quiet sigh she eyed the cupboard, not feeling like raising her arms to put them away.

"Leave them in the counter," said Clarke as if reading her mind. "We're going to use them in the morning again."

"Ok," said Lexa. She took a moment to check on Aden who was playing with his Legos making explosion noises interspersed with the heroes coming up with a plan to defeat the villain.

"I would have thought you told him you were going to take him to Disneyland," commented returning next to Clarke to the sink to dry the plates.

"He'll do anything not to take a shower," Clarke said with good humor, "He'll even eat liver if that gets him out of it."

"Ew!" Said Lexa, feeling a roll of nausea.

"But that will give him more time to ask to watch TV." pointed Clarke.

"So far he seems to have forgot about it," said Lexa looking at the boy completely absorbed with his toys.

Out of the corner of her eye Lexa felt a presence ready to make itself know if she put her guard down, she knew it wasn't real just like the voices that kept calling her name in anger, but that didn't stop her heartbeat from going up.

"I wonder what's going on in Polis," said Clarke yanking Lexa's attention back to reality.

"If there's something important we need to know, Nyko will call." Lexa said reaching blindly to the drying rack to pick up another plate.

"It's the not knowing that's killing me," Clarke moved her hand fast to keep the serving spoon from falling.

Clarke caught the spoon, Lexa caught Clarke's hand. It felt cold from the water of the dishes.

"We'll be safe here," said Lexa in a small voice, letting go of Clarke's hand and the memory of Costia's cold skin after they found her.

 

~

 

"That's not my only worry," said Clarke noticing Lexa's fast pulse on her neck. "How are you feeling?"

Lexa looked around to Aden who was oblivious to everything. "Like shit," she whispered. "I used to carry a flask, but I lost it in a bender." Lexa finally gave up on drying the dishes.

"Honestly, I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing."

She made quick work of the remaining dishes under the attentive watch of the detective, who kept frowning and moving her head as if she was in a conversation in her mind.

"Nia Snow," said Lexa. "That's who I have to go after."

"The CEO of Nix Industries? asked Clarke not sure if that was directed at her.

"She leads Azgeda Kru,"

Clarke looked around for something to write, dishes forgotten. "Two years ago, we were investigating on possible bedazzle going on in Polis Town Hall, I know that's not unusual," said Clarke searching through the drawers. "What made it interesting was that several contracts signed by the mayor for renovations and maintenance of the city's hospitals were with companies that didn't existed until two months before the contract was signed." Clarke began to make notes on a napkin with the dull pencil she found.

"That's not unusual either."

"True, what made us look deeper were the names used in those contracts."

"They are on the list?" asked Lexa.

"Some of them, yes."

"You said it had to do with Azgeda and some pharmaceutical company."

"That's the second part of it."

"What do you mean?"

"Digging around Marcus and I discovered that one of the lobbyists in all of it was Dante Wallace,"

"Who is he?"

"Son of Cage Wallace, owner of Mt. Weather Labs." Clarke made little spirals on the napkin. "at first the local congress opposed to the renovations, but one by one they began to agree."

"They were threatened By Azgeda kru," Lexa walked to the table deep in thought. "It's finally happening."

"Azgeda is getting control of Polis," Clarke joined Lexa at the table. "No way!"

"What?"

"The last thing Marcus told me was that Roan Snow quit Nix industries." Clarke could not believe it.

"What for?"

"To run for Governor."

 

~

 

“Shit!” exclaimed Lexa.

Aden gasped.

“Sorry, sorry.” said Lexa mortified. “I’m so sorry Clarke.”

"You beat me to it," responded Clarke.

"You were going to say a bad word too?" asked Aden indignated.

"We- needed to express our shock at something we discovered," Clarke explained.

"But you say that's no excuse," said the boy.

"I did." Clarke took a breath, "No one is going to say bad words anymore, ok." she turned to Aden and then to Lexa.

"Ok, no more bad words," said Lexa.

"Time to go to bed," declared Clarke.

"Can I skip brushing my teeth? We need to save water"

" Nice try." Clarke went to her son to help him pick up his toys.

Lexa busied herself checking that the windows and the door were locked. She needed to speak with Anya, to know if Clarke's hypothesis was correct.

"Night Lex," said Aden walking from the bathroom to the bedroom

"Night strikon," responded Lexa leaning on the couch arm checking that their cellphones remained off.

"Any messages?" Clarke going out of the bedroom leaving the door ajar.

"No," she said. "If Roan runs for Governor, he'll be the perfect puppet for Nia and Azgeda." 

They'll wipe out trikru from Polis, starting with Luna and her, but not before getting Clarke.

"Your turn," said Clarke. "Come on," Clarke helped her to the bathroom.

"Do I have to brush my teeth too?"

"Not you too."

 

~

 

Lincoln circled the block for a third time before parking outside the bar, if indra found out about this, she would skin him alive.

"Do you have a warrant this time?" Asked the bartender as soon as he crossed the threshold 

"I'm here to speak with your boss," he said desperate to find Lexa.

"He's busy."

He gathered the little energy he had left and marched to the back office.

"Hey! You can't do that!"

Lincoln pushed the door open, the manager was pacing the small room.

"He doesn't have a warrant!"

"I'm not here as a cop," Lincoln said determined not to leave the place until he knew that Lexa was safe.

"That's the same shit Quint said this afternoon," said Nyko standing to his full height.

Lincoln took off his jacket slowly turning so they could see he wasn't carrying his badge or gun.

"I just want to know if she is fine," he said. "She can't go cold-turkey-"

"Finally, you shits realized she is not okay!" Nyko said. "But as long as she is useful to you, who fucking cares what she is going through."

"You didn't help her either!" Said Lincoln remembering that his friend was banned form the bar for some dispute with Nyko.

"I tried, but you bastards kept bringing Costia up over and over."

"We were doing our jobs!" Lincoln said with tears in his eyes.

"Yeah, well none of you had to wrestle a gun from her so she didn't blow her fucking brains out!" The bar manager lifted the sleeve of his black shirt showing a scar. "The bullet graced me."

"I- Lincoln searched Nyko's eyes seeing the man's pain -I didn't knew that."

"What do you think would do to her working on all those cases," Nyko said covering the scar with the sleeve.

Lincoln had been convinced that if they worked on the gang’s killings they could eventually catch Costia's killer.

"Get the hell out of here man," said the bar owner.

Lincoln let Harper drag him out of the establishment too stunned to do anything else but to get on his car and leave.

 

~

 

Clarke was helping Lexa to the couch when the shivering began, then the hallucinations started. She heard Lexa apologize to whomever was tormenting her in her delirium, there were some names she barely remembered, some others she never heard about, and one that came up many times. Costia.

"What happened to you?" asked Clarke in a whisper holding Lexa's hand. They barely fit on the couch, but Clarke couldn't leave Lexa alone with her demons. She was sitting behind the detoxing woman holding her in a half sitting position, at some point Lexa had reached for her hand.

"I made some stupid decisions," said Lexa with glazed eyes. "I wanted so bad to look for you, to see if you were alright." Lexa's only hang on sanity seemed to come from the coin holder she didn't let go. "I'm sorry," she said.

"For all that is worth, I'm thankful that you are alive." Clarke placed a kiss on Lexa's head.

"Tomorrow is my turn to make breakfast," said Lexa with a trembling voice.

Clarke didn't have the heart to tell her that sunset was just a couple minutes away, she felt Lexa's grip on her hand slack a bit, a few heartbeats later Lexa's breathing evened out. She stayed with Lexa watching the light from the kitchen being taken over by the cold light of the morning. It would be a long day for them.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like this story, it's been therapeutic for me to write it.
> 
> Let me know if you have any suggestions for the tags.
> 
> Comments, questions, random thoughts as always are welcome here or in tumblr @sketching-fiction
> 
> New chapter next week.
> 
> :)


	6. Five

Clarke kept turning on the bed next to her son, the week passed slowly for them dreading the phone call that deemed their location unsafe. They had kept Aden as busy as possible taking turns to play with him, her son had found in Lexa a quiet yet interesting companion who devoted all her attention to the intricated plot of his toys.

The cabin creaked with the strain of the cold weather outside and the rising temperature inside, Clarke got off the bed giving up on trying to sleep, she took Aden's socks off to cool him off and placed them on top of the folded comforter on her way out of the bedroom.

She crossed the hall to the bathroom, blinking at the bright light that blinded her for a moment. The lingering minty smell of the ointment she applied to Lexa's torso every night added to the coolness of the room.

"God," she moaned quietly at the cold water she splashed on her face. She contemplated her face on the mirror as she dried the water running down her neck, a barely visible line in her forehead spoke volumes of the amount of stress she was in, she rubbed a corner of the towel on the crease to no avail.

A sob got her attention, she crossed the hall in three steps finding Aden spread on the bed as far as his small limbs could stretch, his mouth was slightly open. Clarke went to the living room, Lexa was on her back, holding the cover in tight fists. Tears fell from the side of her closed eyes getting lost in her dark brown hair.

"Please," Lexa begged to her nightmare. "Please, no." Her breath hitched, a second later she opened her eyes blinking away her tears. A couple of seconds later, she went back to sleep.

The next morning Lexa woke them up with the smell of breakfast.

Aden devoured his omelet talking about the difference of the many Spider-men from the movies.

"Wait, so- there are five different movies about the same guy?" asked Lexa eating her breakfast. Clarke was relieved that the detective was eating again.

"Yes, but they're not the same." Aden had taken upon himself the serious task of teaching Lexa all about the Marvel heroes. "Mommy, can we watch Spiderman on your computer?"

"Sorry honey, there is no Wi-Fi." She said exchanging a glance with Lexa. Clarke didn't want to lie to him about the reasons why they were hiding, but also she didn't want to scare him more.

"Aden, we need to wait a bit longer," said Lexa.

"But we've been here too long," he complained. "I want to see grandma!"

Clarke saw the tantrum coming a mile away.

 

~

"I told you, Wick. They're smart," said Raven from the deck of the boat. They right were the river that came from Ton DC merged with the sea at Polis Bay.

She checked the log of the tracking software that analyzed the cellphone activity in the area unable to find anything that gave away the detective or the reporter to anyone less smart than her.

"I don't know how someone can go more than a week without using their phone or computer," Wick stirred the undissolved sugar at the bottom of his mug. "I know I'd go insane." He took a big gulp of the beverage.

"That's disgusting," said Raven. "You are lucky that I can encrypt all our shit, then." She stood from the folding chair overseeing the horizon, her sunglasses reflecting the sea.

"Do you think they figured out the SD card yet?" asked Wick scrapping the remaining sugar with the spoon.

"I don't know." Raven returned her attention to her laptop screen. "The card is still in detective Wood's phone and Kane had this unshakable faith in her.

"Even if she is the heir of Titus Woods?" Wick left the mug on the deck floor. "I mean, how do we know we are not passing our dead sentences from Azgeda to Trikru.

"We keep waiting," she said.

"What for?"

"I don't know yet," she hadn't thought beyond tracking them. The news of Kane's murder still gave her chills.

The boat swayed with the merging river.

"Where are they now?" he asked.

"In the middle of the woods near Ton. D.C." Raven pointed to the satellite image on the left top corner of the screen.

~

Lexa drank her coffee in shock, awed at how such a small human could make so much noise. Aden got her by surprise, he refused to finish his breakfast or to express his disagreement in a calmer way. It got to a point where anything that Clarke said was met with a resounding No. It amused her to witness how much he was like his mother when an idea got in their heads.

The suddenness of the boy's outburst kept her glued to her chair agape and with her fork in her hand. The wall clock kept them in their thoughts after Clarke pronounced to two words that got the cabin into a five-minute silence: Time Out.

Aden sat at the hall facing the little window calming down, his mother stood in front of the living room window arms crossed checking the time every couple heartbeats. Lexa didn't know what to do so she continued to drink her coffee, maybe they could come up with something to do other than playing Lego's or re-reading his book.

From the periphery she watched Clarke walk to her son, Lexa lowered her head to the bottom of her mug giving the Griffins some privacy. Clarke spoke in a soft voice that Aden responded in kind, a moment later they went out to the living room, the boy approached her with his head low.

"Sorry, I said I didn't like breakfast," Aden told her.

"It's ok strikon, I know you are tired of being locked here." She got an idea. "How about you help me while I check the perimeter today?" Said Lexa.

"What?" Clarke said alarmed.

Lexa stood from the table and went to the room below the cabin, she checked one of the lockers getting a set of walkie-talkies. She unplugged the charging base and returned to the kitchen.

 "Let me hear about your idea first," said Clarke.

 "Ok." Lexa went to the living room and gave the boy one of the radios. "This one is for you," she said. "This knob here – she said pointing the device top – Is the On/Off switch it also works as the volume."

 Aden held the walkie talkie in his small hands.

 "Turn it on." She instructed. "Now, here on the display you'll see a number. Mine shows a three."

 "Mine too," said the excited boy, yet he got close to see Lexa's display and compared them again.

 "Well done. That means we're on the same channel if mine had a different number than yours we wouldn't be able to talk."

 "Ok," said the boy.

 "Push this button here so we can talk," she indicated the left side of the walkie-talkie. "Let go of it when you finish your message and say 'Over,' so I can respond to your message."

 "Ok," Aden turned to look at his mother with a smile.

 "All we need now is a code name," said Lexa.

 "Like a superhero name?" Asked Aden beaming in excitement.

 "Yes, like a superhero name." Lexa's mind went blank with all the names she knew.

 "Can I be Starlord?"

 "Sure. What do you suggest for me?"

 Aden looked around the living room for inspiration. "Nova." He said after a minute. "He's spider-man's friend, and he is a space cop."

 "Alright," said Lexa. "Your job is letting me know when your mom can no longer see me through the window." She turned to Clarke. "What do you say?" She asked.

 "He won't go near any windows?" Clarke bore into her eyes.

 "No. His station will be this couch." She said to them.

 "OK," Clarke conceded.

 

~

 

What are the odds of them finding the other, Clarke asked herself locking the door, the click of the gun being loaded faint on the other side of the door. True, she went to Polis out of curiosity to see the place Lexa talked about so fondly all those years ago. In Polis he found her vocation, her happiness a place to make her own.

 Finn. He was perfect at the beginning, too perfect she realized years later when he would call her every hour just to know how she was doing, then to know where she was lastly to know with whom she was. When she got pregnant, he didn't believe it was his. She broke up with him only to have him going to the hospital when Aden was born, wanting to meet his boy, begging her to let him come back.

 "I was scared," he said. She believed him.

 Clarke went to the bedroom to check on Lexa not thinking about Finn anymore. She looked out trying to see if anything was hiding beyond the line of trees, ready to jump on Lexa.

 "I can't see her from the bedroom," she said to her son. It felt surreal to be locked up in a cabin with a woman she thought dead and her son having the time of his life with a walkie-talkie.

 

~

 

She didn't need to support herself on the rail going down the stairs, taking a deep breath she let the smell of nature fill her lungs. With a last look back to the cabin she set to her morning patrol.

 It was still uncomfortable to move with the persistent soreness, but it wasn't the breath-taking pain she had a week ago. Her anxiety abated while she poured all her attention to Clarke and Aden, either by playing with him or by helping Clarke connecting all the information they had on Azgeda business and her investigation.

 "Nova to Starlord. Status. Over," she spoke through the radio, her right hand steady on the gun.

 "Starlord to Nova. Mommy can no longer see you from the bedroom window... Over.

 Lexa smiled to herself, Aden sounded like he was having fun.

 "Nova to Starlord. Ask your mom to move to the hall window. Over." Lexa walked to a low bush that was moving. "Shit!"

 "Starlord to Nova. Mommy wants to know what happened?"

 Lexa turned to the window looking at Clarke unable to give her a thumbs up having both hands busy, she just shrugged. "A squirrel jumped out of the bush, all is good." Her heart beating wildly in her chest. "Over."

 The perimeter check continued for another fifteen minutes, fortunately, the ground wasn't slippery aiding to her recovery since she didn't have to get herself up from the ground when she slipped on mud.

 "Nova to Starlord. I'm heading back, go to position. Over." Lexa went back to the cabin unloading the gun at the door facing the forest. She knocked to let Clarke know she could unlock the door.

 

~

 

"You are very patient with him," said Clarke closing the door with a grin.

 Lexa put the gun back in the safe. "I had fun too," said the Detective. "Starlord, report to the living room."

 Aden went to the living room with the walkie talkie in his hands and a huge smile on his face.

 "How did I do?" He asked Lexa.

 "You did amazing, and so did your mom," Lexa told them. "Your next mission is to charge the radios." Said Lexa asking permission to her with a slight turn of her head.

 "Be careful," she told them. She joined Lexa's explanation on how the charging dock worked and the security measures he had to follow. They looked so comfortable with each other, something she didn't know how to process.

 

~

 

Raven looked from above her dark glasses to the yacht a few knots from them, the loud music and laugh of its occupants kept getting her out of focus. Some idiot jumped to the sea while his friends recorded everything in their phones.

 "I wish it was like in the movies where you can hack anything," said Wick joining her on the table with his laptop under his arm and a large mug of coffee in his right hand. "Or at least to change that stupid music."

 "Can you take care of those videos?" said Raven pointing to the yacht, certain that their boat would be in the background.

 "Sure," he said setting all up. "We ran out of coffee and beer," informed Wick stirring the beverage saturated with sugar.

 "It was a supply for two weeks," said Raven resuming her work on her laptop following the weather reports on the area.

 "Well, it's over." He said. A loud complaint came from the yacht at the interrupted music, followed by one of Wick's favorite songs.

 "We can do without," she mumbled pulling up the satellite maps of Ton. D.C.

 "We also ran out of pancake mix," he said.

 "Now, that's an emergency," said Raven.

 "The pancake mix?" The music changed in the yacht.

 "What? No, not that." She pointed to her laptop. "This," she pointed the screens.

 Wick peeked at her screen. "Just what we need, a fucking hurricane." He lamented changing again the music in the yacht. "We could go to the river, it's deep enough for the boat or we can go back to Polis and chill in my place." He suggested.

 "Hiding in your Granma's basement?" Raven felt chills remembering the place. "I rather drown, thank you."

 "It was just a suggestion, Raven."

 "The river it is."

 

~

 

"Do you have your flashlight ready?" Asked Lexa to Aden.

 "Yes! I checked the batteries," said Aden turning the lamp on for a couple of seconds and putting the cord on his wrist.

 "Alright, Let's go," said Clarke zipping Aden's jacket at the cold wind coming from the dark tunnel.

 "Here's the light switch," said Lexa turning on the lights of the tunnel. The hum of the electricity invaded the narrow passage. "We'll go with the lights on this first round, so you can familiarize with the path."

 "Ok," said Clarke holding Aden's hand.

 "Follow me." Lexa walked a couple of steps when Aden reached for her hand, she turned to the boy in surprise. "Clarke. Close the door, please."

 The sound of metal moving and then the lock catching was loud in the enclosed tunnel. Lexa began to walk again.

 "How long is it?" inquired Clarke.

 "About 200 yards," said Lexa. They continued down the tunnel, the gray door at the end getting closer and closer.

 "Where are the hinges, or the lock?" Clarke got closer to the door.

 "Just like the other one, you need to move it a bit for it to catch on the hinges and unlock, Lexa pushed one side of the door then the sound of the mechanism activating made Aden jump. Lexa pushed the other side of the door to open it. "Is not perfect but it has worked for as long as I can remember."

 The cave they went out to, felt colder than the tunnel, Clarke lifted Aden's collar to cover his nose and mouth. "I don't want you to get a cold," she said to the boy.

 "Over there you'll get to the end of the cave, there is nothing of interest except for room to camp."

 "Lex, can we camp?" asked Aden with hope in his voice.

 "It's too cold right now, strikon," said Lexa. "We'll think of something fun to do back at the cabin."

 "We can make a fort," suggested Clarke.

 "Mmmm, okay," said Aden not too convinced.

 "The boat is over here," Lexa guided them to out the cave.

 

~

 

Clarke felt the smell of the forest hit her in full force, after spending almost two weeks indoors she felt the happiness of being outside. The foliage was dense not letting them see the night sky.

 "I'm going to let go for a moment," Lexa said to Aden.

 She walked to what to a huge rock half buried in the hill they came out covered in moss, branches, and leaves, it was a few feet from the river bank. Lexa began to caress a side of the mossy rock her eyes opened when she found the latch.

 "Wow!" said Clarke watching the rock opening, Lexa waved at them to get closer. Inside the hollow rock, Clarke could see a small boat.

 "Awesome!" said the boy.

 

~

 

"Man, I'm tired." The gruff voice of Quint low in the passenger seat.

 Lincoln shifted in the driver's seat unable to get rid of the ache on his lower back,  he checked the time on his phone, "I need to stretch my legs," said Lincoln replying to a message on his phone.

 "Why are we doing this again?" Asked Quint. "Woods is gone, why will she come back?"

 "You guess is as good as mine." His worry about his friend didn't abate in the last week.

 The car went silent.

 "Be right back," said Quint.

 "Where are you going?"

 "I need to take a piss,"  the bulky detective left the car.

 Lincoln returned his attention to Lexa's building, the passenger door opened. "That was fast..."

 "Don't" the man warned, pointing a gun to Lincoln's stomach who had the hand froze above the radio. "Where is she?"

 "Who?" Lincoln jumped having the gun pushed to his body, he tried to guess if his liver was in the way of a bullet. "Ok, ok, ok," he said unsure if he wanted to Quint to show up or not. "We don't know."

 "Any leads or evidence?" asked the man, who had took the precaution to cover his face.

 "Are you serious?" Blurted Lincoln at the man's audacity. He noticed the high quality of the man's clothes.

 "I'm sure officer Blake will not appreciate some stupid thief putting an end to her shift." the man pulled out a phone.

 Lincoln bleached the at the picture the man showed him.

 "This is from ten minutes ago," he said.

 "We have nothing!" He tried to reason with the man.

 "Think harder!" He sent a prayer to anyone who would listen to keep Octavia from any harm.

 "You move a muscle and I blow your brains out."

 Lincoln welcomed the sound of Quint's voice, he got out of the car without taking his eyes from the man leaving the door open he trained his gun on him.

 "Put the gun down and get out of the car!" Lincoln ordered. "You are either too stupid or too desperate," he said to the caught man.

 "Detectives! Do you need back up?" The red and blue lights of a police car illuminated the street.

 "We'll appreciate it," barked Quint.

 It took them ten minutes to arrest him and put him on the back of the police car, Lincoln could not recognize him but the nicks on his cheek clued him in that he shaved in a hurry.

 "We'll process this one for you," said officer Emerson with a reassuring nod.

 "Thanks' man, we'll be at the station shortly," said Lincoln already taking his phone to call Octavia. Quint spoke with Captain Hill.

 "Hey O, how's everything going?" He asked his girlfriend. "All is good over here. I just- I needed to hear your voice." He said torn between going to the station and making sure Octavia was safe.

 

~

  

"I knew you'll be here," said Clarke entering the scape room.

 Lexa lifted her head at Clarke's voice hitting the shelf.

 "Jok! I was checking our supplies," she said rubbing her head. "I swear." Lexa returned to her task. "Aden?"

 "Out like a light, he really needed some fresh air." Clarke stood nearby looking around the room.

 "We all did," Lexa agreed. "I'm feeling a lot better." She truly did, of course, things could change at any minute.

 "Do you want to share why does Nyko has a place like this?" asked Clarke with hesitance.

 "Not really." She stopped her perusal of canned goods. "But is the least you deserve," she left the list she was writing on the work table, next to the duffle bag filled with guns. "Remember why Nyko and I went to Arcadia?"

 "To hide from your father."

 "Yeah," Lexa leaned against the table. "Clarke. I never apologized for making you think that we died." She didn't look at Clarke, ashamed of what she had done to her. "It was the best idea we could come up with to cut ties with Arcadia." She rubbed the tension on the base of her neck. "We were trying to keep you from- she inhaled fighting the rush of emotion that was choking her words- I didn't want my father to find out about you."

 "What happened after you left?" Asked Clarke in a serious tone.

 "I - I accepted my punishment," Lexa said trying not to make a big deal of it. "I begged out, he accepted with the condition to never ask anything from him," The look Clarke gave her spoke volumes about her anger.  "I could have died if it wasn't for Nyko and Luna. This was his father hideout just in case anything went wrong while he worked as a fisa for Trikru." She drummed her fingers on the cold surface of the table.

 "Fisa... Doctor?" asked Clarke, taking a seat on a metallic stool near the shelves.

 "Yes." Lexa pulled the other stool from under the table and sat across Clarke. "The list that Marcus had was an idea from the police department to bring down the violence in Polis back then."

 

~

 

"Azgeda and Trikru." Clarke knew there were many more but most of them worked with one of those two.

 Lexa nodded as if defeated, she moved the metallic stool trying to stabilize it after noticing one of the legs was dented, making it shorter than the other three.

 "It was an honest effort. Unfortunately, nobody thought of keeping things from benefiting one kru above the others,"

 "They forgot?" Clarke said. "Azgeda had always kept a close grip on the Police Department," she said remembering most of the information they got on their investigation.

 "That's right. Eventually, they thought of moving over my father's territory." Lexa's stare was somewhere else. "

Nia tried to make him relent."

 "You and your sister." Clarke could almost touch the tension emanating from Lexa.

 "Luna was already hidden," said Lexa lost in her memories. "This means nothing to people without honor - said Lexa pulling up her sleeves showing the marks on her arms - I was safe from anything coming from Trikru or their allies," she whispered.

 "You don't have to tell me more. I understand."

 "Thank you," Lexa got rid of the tear that began to fall with one of the sleeves.

 Clarke reached out holding the detective's hands.

 "If I could I'll kick the shit out of Marcus for getting involved in this and dragging you into it too."

 Clarke's demeanor changed, Lexa was now offering her comfort. "His funeral-" Clarke broke down, after so much time holding it for Aden's sake, for Lexa's. She cried for her friend and mentor. He was a brilliant man who took her under his wing, that lived and breathed for his job.

 "He was a good man," said Lexa.

 "I can't believe he knew you," said Clarke staring at Lexa with watery eyes.

 "He came to me one night, at Nyko's asking about a murder we were investigating. Bastard thought he could invite round after round just to make me talk."

 "The Drunken Trikru," said Clarke to Lexa. "He liked to tell me about the time he was investigating Kaplan's murder. One of the leads guided him to a former Trikru member, but they were so out of it they only spoke Trigedasleng."

 "Yeah, that was me," said Lexa in shame.

 "The only thing he understood was the 'Fuck you' you told him."

 "He asked me to teach him, but the man didn't have a tongue for it, and is not exactly a written dialect.

 Clarke gave Lexa a rueful smile, Lexa nodded with a faint blush on her cheeks.

 "I remember when you were teaching me," she said.

 "Me too."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading!


	7. Six

It had taken a week for Raven and Wick to reach the small town affectionately known as TonDC to hide from the bad weather and Azgeda, they had planned to be there three days ago, but the river had begun to rise, still it was far better here than on the open sea, at least in Wick's opinion.

"My grandma will have more chances of recovering my body if this thing sinks," he said to Raven for the thousandth time since she began working on the floating piece of scrap.

The sun was hidden behind heavy clouds but the winds had halted, the chill made him crave for a cup of coffee and some quality time with his Xbox.

"Here," said Raven handling him the shopping list and the ATM card. "Remember..."

"Low profile, I know." He put the items in the pocket of his denim jacket.

He walked down the dock that in the midmorning was chockfull of fishermen and families enjoying the cloudy summer. Kids screamed their heads off in excitement running and playing on a nearby playground surrounded with picknick tables.

He looked in passing at the people not relating to the picture of perfect families he walked by. All his life it had been him, his grandma and the endless parade of kids she looked after when their neighbors couldn't. Raven had been one of those kids, but unlike the others, one day she stayed with them for good.

The sound of banter and laughter spilled out of the convenience store to the parking lot that only had room for three cars. He walked in drooling at the smell of hot-dogs and microwaved popcorn.

"The ATM?" he asked the clerk who did his best to keep up with so many clients.

"Next to the Slushy machine," he responded.

Wick dodged an arguing couple who could not compromise on a movie from the small DVD selection that the store offered a bit horrified at how some people kept living in the past. He stood at the end of the queue for the ATM keeping an eye for anyone that might look like a treat, the hot-dog smell got to him like a siren's call, his anxiety rivaling his hunger. After withdrawing the money he got all the items on the list and one of those hot-dogs.

Leaving the store without incident, he moved to the side ready to enjoy his snack. "Oh, fuck!" he said with his mouth stuffed.

Detective Lexa Woods was walking down the dock.

He juggled his cellphone, the plastic bags with his supplies and the hotdog.

"Raven. She's here!" he turned away so the Detective could not see him.

"What? Ok, ok, ok. Don't panic... Is she alone?"

"Yeah," he said taking another bite of his snack.

"Can you get to her?"

"I dunno Raven. Last time I saw her I decked her." he took another bite. "I don't think she'll be happy to see me."

"I'm going. Keep an eye on her."

"You got it, boss," he said finishing his hot-dog.

 

~

 

Lexa's heartbeat picked up at the fresh smell of the river and the sound of people having fun, she kept her head down walking as fast as she could without causing suspicion, her face was in much better condition than three weeks ago, so, against Clarke's reassurance that they could go by without some things, Lexa had set to replenish their stock. They had started to run low on food and toiletries.

The convenience store was packed, but she moved methodically from one side to the other filling her arms with the stuff they needed, purposefully avoiding the fridge stocked with beer. She thanked whoever was in charge of the store for having the hard liquor behind the counter and out of her reach.

Her mood improved when she got to the back of the store occupied by a couple arguing about what kind of popcorn to buy. Among some movies she had never heard the titles of, was a Spider-man DVD, it was a cartoon. Lexa stood there for a moment trying to place it on the timeline Aden had explained while they played, she took it and picked another one that maybe she could watch with Clarke.

"Don't forget the popcorn," said someone from her left, the shiver that crossed her spine nearly made her drop the things.

"Anya," she acknowledged the woman who was offering a wire basket to put the items in.

 

~

 

"She still there?" asked Raven crossing the parking lot in long strides.

"Yes, but she got approached by a woman," said Wick hiding behind the broken public phones.

"Griffin?"

"No, no. It's someone else, she looks dangerous," he said biting his fingertip.

"Damn it!" Raven got close to the store window looking inside.  "Oh, shit." she ran back to the boat.

"What is it? Raven!" He caught up with Raven. "What the hell?"

Raven started the boat. "Check the cellphones!" she ordered him.

He went below deck leaving the shopping bags on the small table, he reached the array of monitors and turned up the volume on Raven's cellphone monitoring system. The speech recognition software filling one of the screens with lines and lines of conversations.

"What am I looking for?"

"Anyone speaking Trigegasleng!"

"There is a dude speaking Farsi," he commented.

Raven glared at him.

"Alright, alright!"

 

~

 

Lexa stride back to the small boat she used to get there, her jaw set in a hard line.

"What do you want?" she asked her fos, not daring to look at her.

 "It's a miracle nobody has found you," said Anya behind her sunglasses.

Lexa looked around, life continued at the dock everyone blissfully ignoring them.

"I have a safe place," Anya said in that no-nonsense way she had of speaking. "Roan is out there looking for you and the Arcadian."

"Why?" she asked placing the supplies inside the boat.

"What do you mean why?"

"Yes, why?" she faced her mentor. "I'm no one to you, I'm no longer Trikru. If my father gets wind that you are helping me..."

"He sent me."

Lexa stood root on the dock in fear.

"He's offering a deal," said Anya.

 

~

 

Her scrawled notes didn't make sense the longer she stared at them, Clarke ran her fingers through her hair in frustration giving up trying to find a way to get a connection between Marcus death and Nia.

What if something happened to Lexa?

"Mommy, can we take Lexa with us to Arcadia?" Asked Aden building another spacecraft with his Legos, the walkie-talkie not far from his reach, he had taken his task quite seriously. "I want to show her my ship."

Clarke smiled at the idea of Lexa cramped inside the rocket-shaped treehouse in her mother's backyard. It was his birthday gift from last year.

"We need to ask her, but first there are some things we need to take care of." She said to her son.

"The bad men?" He asked.

"Yes," she said taken aback by how little escaped him.

"Ok," he said.

What they were going to do after all this? She paced the small kitchen. Who they could trust outside the cabin?

 

~

 

Lincoln had never been so angry, not that it was the first time a suspect got "lost" while being transported to the precinct but it was the first time he had been targeted. He pushed the locker room door, everyone got out of his way.

"Where is he?" Lincoln slammed Emmerson against the locker, the policeman struggled.

"They took him from us!" Emmerson pushed Lincoln off.

"Who? Lincoln felt all his coworker's eyes on him.

"Who else, fucking Trikru." Emmerson straightened his unbuttoned shirt. "Woods is in a lot of shit this time," he spat at the floor as if Lexa's name was bitter.

"Dude, let it go." Said Quint pulling him out of the locker room before he could beat the living crap out of him.

 

~

 

The forest was still, no human sound reached that part of the river. Lexa jumped out of the boat and pushed it towards its hiding place, her anger towards her former mentor diminishing the further she had gone upstream. She took the backpack where she placed the items she had bought.

"Damn it!" she exclaimed after stretching too far, her ribs still needed more time. "Fuck!" he breath was shallow, she leaned against the fake rock trying to catch her breath. "Nova to Starlord," she said through the radio. The forest remained empty, Anya's words echoing in her head.

"Nova!- I mean, Starlord to Nova, Status... Over" the joyful sound of Aden's voice brought her out of her anger.

"I'm going in," she said walking to the cave. The fine hairs on her arms stood on point at the drastic temperature change. It took her a moment to get the door catching on the mechanism to open the tunnel to the cabin's basement. Without waiting another moment she went in closing the door behind her. Lexa took out a flashlight instead of turning on the light to save on fuel.

"Nova to Starlord, I'm at the gate. Over."

"Welcome home Nova!" said the boy.

Lexa's grip on the flashlight tightened at the unexpected affection a smile broke across her face and that's how Clarke found her behind the red locker that hid the passage.

"I take it went well," said Clarke letting her in.

She hated to lie, but it was so easy when she had to protect those she cared about. To protect Clarke. "Sha, Clarke. Everything went good," she stepped inside letting Clarke take off the backpack from her.

While Clarke took out the things from the bag she unloaded the gun and put it in the duffle bag with the arsenal Niko had left. They needed to be ready for anything happening, the bug-out-bag next to the red locker didn't seem enough to Lexa.

"What is this?"

Lexa turned to at Clarke's incredulous voice, the blonde was checking the DVDs.

"Oh. Thought maybe Aden might want to you know- I mean, he can't go out and he must be bored out of his mind by now-" she was interrupted by Clarke hugging her. She remained still out of reflex but the warmth from Clarke began to spill into her bones.

"Thank you," said Clarke stepping back a bit.

"No problem," Lexa said scratching the back of her neck right were her scars begin. "Everything ok here?"

"Yep," Clarke responded holding the DVD to her chest. "Starlord kept the place safe."

 

~

 

Wick for one was happy that all went to hell after he bought a pound of coffee, otherwise their current mission would've been unbearable. It had begun to rain a few hours ago, dispersing all the people from the dock, except for the RV's that Raven kept listening on.

"Anything?" He asked passing a freshly made mug to his friend, he logged to his bank account to set up the weekly money transfers to his grandma.

"Nothing." She took a sip of the hot beverage. "And I don't like it," she said.

"We really did pass our death sentences to Trirku, didn't we?" He said designated to be on the run a bit longer. "I have a feeling that we just delivered Clarke Griffin to them in  a silver plate."

"Marcus-"

"He's dead Raven."

 

~

 

The bad weather rattled the cabin, it's occupants sat on the couch watching the cartoon movie that played on the DVD. Lexa was on the right side of the couch nearest to the door, Clarke relaxed on the left playing with her son's hair on her lap. Lexa kept missing the plot of the movie mulling over Anya's words over and over, she had given her three days to accept her father's deal.

What kind of protection could Trikru offer Clarke? "Never," she thought vehemently.

"Everything ok?" asked Clarke.

Lexa turned to look at the blonde, her pulse picked up speed at the sight of them. She could not deny that what she felt for Clarke all those years ago wasn't forgotten if anything it began to resurface. What surprised her though was how taken she was by the little boy.

A small smile was all she offered to the blonde. They returned their attention to the movie, Lexa noticed Clarke kept stealing glances at her. By the time the movie had ended, Aden was deeply asleep.

"Lex. Can you help me?" said Clarke in a low voice signaling to the boy sprawled on top of his mother.

"What do I do?" asked Lexa standing from the couch.

"Just lift him up from me so I can get up."

"Ok." Lexa lifted the boy then placed him back on the couch, while Clarke stretched.

"Ow!" she exclaimed. A loud crack followed a moan. "He's getting heavier she said in wonder picking him up.

Along with her renewing feelings for Clarke she didn't know what to do with, the longing that filled her mind began to buzz with what-ifs and missed chances. "Em pleni," Lexa thought reminding herself that being with her had ended Costia's life. She didn't what that for Clarke too.

She took out the DVD from the player and went to the kitchen to wash the dishes from dinner and the popcorn bowl they used.

"Thank you," said Clarke taking the drying towel from the magnetic hook on the fridge.

"What for?"

"The movie for Aden and for spending time with him." Clarke began to dry the plates.

"He's a great kid," she said sincerely.

"He has his moments," said Clarke with a smile that in a second turned into sadness.

"Hey, come here." Lexa held her with all her might.

"I don't know what to do," said Clarke in between sobs. "This must be so hard for him."

"Is not your fault Clarke."

"Yes, it is. I insisted Marcus to help with the Mt. Weather story and now we are hiding for our lives."

"You were doing your job."

"I- I would never forgive myself if something happened to him."

Lexa's hold on Clarke grew closer.

"Clarke. Nothing is going to happen to you or Aden. Not while I'm here," she said holding her gaze.

"I cannot ask this from you, Lexa you had nothing to do with this." Clarke shook her head. "You got out," she traced the scar below her neck.

"And I'll jump back in," Lexa said realizing the tremendous decision she just made. _"Oso throu daun ageda."_

"We fight together," said Clarke remembering that phrase.

Whatever Lexa was about to say flew out of her mind, her brain busy processing the feeling of Clarke's lips on hers. It was familiar enough to feel comfortable, yet different with the added years they had of experience.

She wanted to cry at the tenderness of it, and in frustration knowing she didn't deserve it.

 

~

 

Clarke was a whirlwind of disjointed thoughts and worry, she held Lexa like a lifeline. Her mouth tingling with the aftermath of kissing Lexa, who seemed surprised. Guilt overran everything else.

"Lexa. I'm sorry I don't know why I did that," her hands loosened the hold on Lexa's neck. However, Lexa's hands were still on her waist rubbing circles with her thumbs.

"I got you wet."

"What?" a quick blush burned Clarke's face.

"Your shirt," said Lexa still holding her.

At that moment she felt the water from the dishes seeping through the fabric of her shirt.

"Right," she whispered lost in Lexa's stare. "I think I'll go to bed," she said.

"I'll finish here."

Lexa's hands left her body, she let go of the detective.

"Good night," she said putting the towel back in its place.

"Night."

 

~

 

Lexa couldn't help the smile on her face, she breathed in easier and for the first time, all her decisions seemed to be in the right direction. She continued her task listening to Clarke getting ready for bed. Making quick work of the remaining dishes, she let them on the rack to dry.

Her evening routine went fast, checking the burner phone and turning off all the lights in the cabin, except for the nightlight in the kitchen. Clarke had left her covers and pillow on the couch. She brushed her teeth with the humming sound from the lightbulb as her only company, she lifted her shirt to check her torso.

Most of the bruises had faded to a yellowish color, a few here and there remained a light green. She bit the toothbrush in pain when she pocked at one of the green bruises. Rinsing her mouth she calculated how much fuel they had, a major supply run would be needed in two weeks if they didn't find a way out of the mess they were in.

"We cannot hide anymore," she concluded turning off the bathroom light coming face to face with Clarke, who was standing on the hall. The nightlight from the kitchen barely reached her face.

She met her halfway.

Clarke held her face kissing her deeply, with a fierceness she didn't have an hour ago. She lost herself in Clarke, the ongoing storm on the back of her mind. Her lungs demanded air yet she could not bear being apart from the blonde's lips, but their need to breath won. She rested her forehead on Clarke's, as her hands reacquainting themselves with the blonde's loving face.

"Lex, I've taken so much from you these past weeks, you've done so much for us," whispered Clarke. "But I need to ask if you can give me this moment."

Lexa shook her head, not finding the words to tell her that it was her that had helped her out in her lowest moments. "Everything I give you, I give it for free." It was the best she could say, feeling her body burn with the air she breathed from Clarke. Incensed by her own words she claimed Clarke's lips again.

She pushed her against the wall next to the bedroom door, going delirious with the taste of her pale skin. The pain of having Clarke's hands exploring her body didn't compare with the need she felt. Lexa cradled Clarke's face kissing her again, they moved together to the couch. She hesitated pulling at Clarke's shirt, the blonde understood sparing a glance to the hall.

Lexa fell to the couch looking up at Clarke who took her sleeping shirt in one movement, her ample breasts robbed her breath away. Clarke gave her a smile reaching for the cover, putting it on across her shoulders and pulling down her sleeping shorts. Lexa caught on what Clarke was doing and proceeded to take off her clothes.

"Is this okay?" asked Clarke straddling her lap.

"Yes, perfect." Lexa took a moment to stare into blue eyes, relishing the contact of Clarke's skin on her own. Their body heat trapped under the cover made her break in sweat, they made their best with the limited room they had.

~

"It is indeed a small couch," said Clarke spooned against Lexa who kept kissing the back of her neck.

"We could have used the floor," said Lexa in a whisper.

Clarke pressed her back against Lexa loving the solid hand right under her sternum keeping her from falling off. "Next time?" she asked exhausted intertwining her fingers with Lexa's hand, it was hard to tell the time from their position on the couch but her muscles felt limp.

"Next time," came Lexa's soft voice.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all the kudos and comments!


	8. Seven

"I don't like this," whispered Anya coming out of the kitchen of one of Polis most exclusive restaurants.

 The restaurant took the entire twelve floor of Polis Tower, that at seven am was tending to their only patron having breakfast in the middle of the room. Every door, staircase, and elevator had one of her gonnas ready to protect their Heda.

 It had been a relief seeing Lexa alive and sober, running into her at the store in Ton DC saved her from going to the cabin and exposing them more. However Titus' order to remove every Trikru from the area torn her between trying to protect Lexa and keeping tabs on why her boss had requested this morning meeting.

 "I delivered the message," she said taking a seat next to her boss, who didn't react, reading the news on his tablet, on an oak valet hung his suit jacket, on the tray laid his knife.

 "This better be worth my time," said Nia walking inside the empty restaurant, escorted by four bodyguards.

 The waiter pulled up a chair for her, Nia kept her full attention on her host. The youngest gonna gave the breakfast order to the waiter.

 "There is a matter that concerns both our interests," said Titus putting the tablet away and reaching for his coffee. Black, no sugar, exactly as it should be.

 Nia remained silent, not a single of her muscles moved if it didn't carry and intention, so Anya focused on her bodyguard, she was probably Lexa's age. The woman alternated her attention from the table to the gonnas nearby.

 "Are you finally going to make an example of your Strikheda?" asked Nia.

 "As you know, Lexa's punishment has been carried out," said Titus taking another sip of the bitter beverage. "Speaking of children. Roan paid me a visit the other day."

 For much control Nia was able to display, it was the woman next to her that reacted.

 "I haven't seen him in a while," she said as if asking for the weather.

 "He is convinced that I have some list regarding the miraculous vanishing of some of my people, including my eldest," said Titus.

 "I wonder where he got that idea, he must be burned out. Stress can do that." The waiter served Nia a tea, she looked at it and pushed it away in disgust.

 "That's why I made him a guest in my house," he said. "After all, he is about to embark into a strenuous venture."

 Anya fought the smile on her face at the gonna reacting in alarm, she composed herself quick. But for everyone in the room, she might as well have gasped in surprise.

 Titus leaned back on his chair, the waiter hurried to refill his cup.

 "And what do you want in order to end your generous hospitality towards my son?" asked Nia.

 "The reporter, Clarke Griffin of course," he said. "And the list."

 It was Anya's turn to suppress her shock, of course, Titus would not wait for Lexa's answer. She needed to warn her seken.

 

~

 

The morning found Clarke in her bed tucked in with her son, her face broke in a smile. Closing her eyes to the morning light she wished to stay still in that moment, the soreness of her muscles robbed her breath away.

It surprised her how easy it was to remember Lexa's weak spots, discovering some new ones had been just as good. They hadn't sworn their undying love as they used to, they were strangers still, but the comfort that the familiarity brought help her ease her fear.

She went back to earth by the smell of fresh coffee and...

 "Pancakes," said Aden sitting up on the bed half asleep, his hair pointing out in every direction.

 "Morning," said Clarke with a smile reserved only for him reaching out to put his hair in some sort of order.

 "Mommy, why is still raining?" he asked flopping back on the bed.

 "Because it's summer and just like it snows on winter it rains on summer," she let him play with her hair. "Also hurricanes are common this time of the year."

 "What's a hurricane?" he asked.

 "A huge storm with lots of wind and thunder," she said making funny voices.

 "Sounds like a monster," he declared.

 "A monster you say?" she growled.

 "Oh, no!" screamed Aden when she began to tickle him. "I give, I give!"

 Clarke stopped tickling her son, their laughs died down slowly, she hugged him just to let him know everything was going to be okay. A soft knock made both heads turn to the door. Her heart did a somersault at the sight of Lexa, wearing her Arcadia U hoodie with the sleeves pulled up and the dish towel draped on her shoulder.

 Lexa's clothes were a mismatch of the things they could salvage and the clothes Clarke lend her.

 "Breakfast is ready," she said playing with the dish towel.

 "I need to pee!" announced Aden without hesitation, he flew past the detective into the bathroom leaving both adults alone.

 "Good morning," said Lexa from the doorway, seemly lost at what to do with her hands finally opting to cross them.

 

Clarke stood up and kissed Lexa's cheek.

"Good morning Lexa!" yelled Aden from the bathroom.

 "Indeed," said Clarke.

The blush that graced Lexa's face made her smile even bigger. She rested her forehead on Lexa's shoulder, willing herself to believe that everything was going to be alright, that they could build something after all of this was over.

 

Lexa's body tensed with the ringing rattling her discarded leather jacket.

 

"Is that..." Clarke's words died down.

 Lexa walked to the couch picking up her jacket, she got the burner phone but the ringing continued in her jacket. Clarke watched it horror as Lexa took out her cellphone.

 "It was off, I checked it this morning," said Lexa.

 

~

 

"You don't know me but we have -- had a friend in common!" Said Raven about to lose her mind with what she was getting from her surveillance on the phone towers and radio frequencies. "And right now there's a shit ton of trouble heading your way!"

 "How many?" asked the voice at the other side of the line.

 "I'm counting six different signals in the same conversation," she said sending panicked glances to Wick who was ready to jump into the river and flee.

 "Do you know where they are coming from?"

 "They're at the road in the forest. Listen if you can make it to the river-"

 "We'll be at Ton DC's dock."

 "Where?"

 "We'll find you."

 

~

 

Aden's morning turned into chaos, as he was coming out from the bathroom ready to eat his pancakes and to ask if he could watch the movie again, Lexa's voice caught his attention.

It sounded different from how she talked to him or his mom. He froze in the middle of the hall seeing his mom run to the bedroom with a look of fear on her face.

"Aden, hurry!" said his mom taking his hand, moving as fast as they could to the kitchen.

 "What's happening?" his mouth shake trying not to cry.

 "Strikon, I need you to listen to your mom, ok?" asked Lexa kneeling to his level helping him put on his shoes. He nodded, while his mother put on his jacket. "Do everything she tells you to do," she closed the zipper of his jacket and then opened the secret door.

 The first time he went down to the basement it felt like an adventure, now he wasn't so sure.

 

~

 

"Come on honey!" Clarke lead Aden downstairs, she could hear Lexa opening the safe where she kept the handgun.

"Clarke hurry!" admonished Lexa from the living room peeking through the curtains, then closed the bedroom and bathroom's doors.

"Follow the plan," said the detective following them downstairs.

Clarke felt a protest surging within her chest. "I'm not leaving you."

"Clarke please," Lexa took her hand and gave her the phone. "Double check the dock for anything suspicious and don't stop for anyone. I'll find you," she said opening the door to the tunnel.

"No, Lexa. We fight together," she whispered holding Lexa for just a second, searching her eyes, begging her silently to go with them. The anguish of losing Lexa again nearly made her go into a panic. She closed her eyes at the quick kiss Lexa gave her.

"Hodnes. Please, go." Lexa implored.

 The grief in her voice reminded Clarke that Lexa knew how she was feeling. She let go of her and went inside the tunnel, the door closing immediately behind them.

 "Follow the plan," she said out loud searching for the light switch, it blinded them for a second, there was no time to waste. Clarke picked up the backpack Lexa prepared the day before and grabbed Aden's hand.

Five steps in she picked up her son and moved as fast as she could manage with the weight she was carrying, Aden's quiet sobs, her ragged breath, and frantic footsteps were all they could hear inside the cold tunnel. The rain had lowered the temperature making it difficult to take deep breaths. After an eternity she finally could see the door at the end of the tunnel, with shaking hands she put her son down.

 "Stay behind me," she instructed him, he grabbed the hem of her sleeping shirt that peaked out from under the jacket she trowed on in a haste.  "Push the door until the mechanism catches..." she said following Lexa's instructions, her hands recoiled at the contact with the freezing door, yet she persisted.

 The loud sound of the heavy door startled them. Clarke hugged her boy waiting for her heart to calm down. Wiping away the stray tears in her eyes she took a step out to the cave, listening to any danger. The earthy smell of the damp cave welcomed them back to the exterior. She nodded to her son to follow her.

 "Stay here," she said when they reached the mouth of the cave, the hiding spot of the boat in the periphery of her vision. "When I tell you, run," she said cradling Aden's face to make sure he was listening.

 Ignoring all the instincts that roared at her not to leave her son alone, she went out to the forest. It was easy to take the boat out to the river. "Aden, run!"

 Aden wasted no time to go to his mother. Clarke held him by the waist as he jumped easing the effort of getting him inside, he made himself small at the bottom of the boat, just as Lexa had told him. Clarke placed the backpack near him in a desperate attempt to hide him.

 Clarke splashed her way into the river pushing the boat with all her might. Her steps faltered at the ground that began to turn softer underwater, the river saturated her shoes and socks, she gasped at the icy water. When the boat began to float she pulled herself inside.

 

~

 

Lexa shoved all her emotions aside as soon as she closed the door and opened the duffel bag on the work table taking out a holster to put the handgun on her lower back. She cursed at the lack of a bulletproof vest, filling the hoddie's pockets with as many shotgun shells she could and grabbed the shotgun.

Leaving the remaining guns behind she took the other backpack she prepared the day before and made her way upstairs. She closed the trap door and fixed the rug, the silence of the living room made her yearn for the Griffins.

A Lego figure Aden had left on the coffee table got her attention, she picked up before putting it in her jeans pocket next to the pouch where she carried Costia's wedding ring. With one last look at the cabin, she headed for the door.

She descended the porch stairs aware of the sound of several cars approaching before she could estimate how far they were the headlights reached the front of the cabin.

"Damn it!" she ran towards the general direction to Ton DC.

 

~

 

"Come on!" Clarke screamed in frustration, pulling at the handle to start the motor without any results. The lesson Lexa gave her got muddled with her dread. "Calm down," she said setting everything as it was. "Calm down."

The revving of the engine filled her with hope, she steered upstream, not sure if her hands were shaking because of the power of the motor or because of fear.

The phone hadn't ring again.

"It's okay, baby," she said to her son.

A gunshot echoed in the forest.

 

~

 

Lexa moved her head to the right out of reflex closing her eyes at the bullet exploding in a tree trunk to the left side of her head, with the momentum she took cover behind a wider tree.

"Shit!" she wheezed not ready for such a fast move.

Risking a glance she spotted a gonna searching for her, leveling her shotgun she aimed to his leg, as soon as she pulled the trigger she took off deeper into the forest, gunshots all around her.

 

~

 

Clarke held her son in a tight embrace, he was crying out at the awful sound of dozens of gunshots behind them. She did her best to cover his hears from the frightful sound, but it was useless at the explosion that shook the forest.

 

~

Lexa took advantage of the confusion to run the hell from there, if she didn't stop, she might be able to reach Clarke and Aden before they passed Ton DC, if not...

"Follow the plan," she reminded herself.

The adrenaline kept the remaining discomfort from her injuries at bay, the wet wind was refreshing against her flushed skin. Her only worry was the uneven terrain, it took too much effort to dodge the rocks and roots. But the gonnas were just as relentless. She kept moving with the gunshots hitting the nearby trees, the zooming sound of a bullet next to her ear nearly made her stop.

A fallen tree to her right offered the perfect cover to take some gonnas down. Staying as calm as possible, she aimed the shotgun towards the closer one and took him out of the chase, her second shot was easily dodged by the gonna behind him.

"Shit!" she said taking cover from the deluge of bullets, she reached inside the backpack for another grenade, waiting for a lull on their attack she hooked her finger on the safety ring. "One, two-"

The safety pin hadn't reached the floor when she threw the grenade shooting at them with the handgun to keep them from throwing it back at her, in the last second she took cover again.

Birds and branches flew in all directions, her ears rang but her resolve to see the Griffin family again gave her the strength to pick herself up from the forest floor and keep going.

 

~

 

"What are you waiting for?" spurned the woman leading the chase. "Get her!"

Eco noticed that Woods had run away on her own, probably in a futile attempt of distracting them from their main objective.

"Eco, they're gone!" came the report from the radio.

"Jok!" she charged towards the forest herself.

The two explosions had slowed their advance, she passed two of her men that lay on the floor bleeding out making quick signals to the men coming from the cabin to pick them up. It didn't take too long to finally catch a glimpse of the disowned trikru

"I got you."

 

~

 

The Griffin's reached Ton DC to the sight of tourists and residents hailing out of the dock and a nearby playground, the gunshots were faint up there, but undeniably getting closer. Some boats started to pull from the dock to the middle of the wide river. Determined not to stop she kept the boat on route, the phone in her backpack began to ring.

"Who is this?"

"I talked to Detective Woods. Need a hand?"

Clarke scanned her surroundings, spotting a larger boat where a woman on the deck was waiving at them.

"How do I know I can trust you?" she asked, cursing her shaky voice.

"I'm- was Marcus contact. My name is Raven Reyes and helping you will help me."

 

~

 

"Damn it!" she missed again. Eco changed the clip of her gun and continued her pursuit of Lexa Woods.

She had heard the heir was badly injured and jumped at the chance of claiming that kill, but the damned little heda was just as hard to put down as her nontu.

"Stand down!" she commanded, when they reached the edge of the forest, her gonna lowered their guns.

She'll get her soon.

 

~

 

Lexa hung the shotgun at her back running towards the dock,  the panicking people made it impossible to locate the small boat. She was too late, a cry in the river caught her attention.

She ran to the end of the dock and jumped in the water without a second thought at the call from Clarke and Aden from an unfamiliar boat. It wasn't so far off the edge of the river, something that distressed her because it was within the range of a handgun.

Lexa kept swimming against the pull of the backpack, her ribs hurt with the effort of extending her arms to the rope ladder that was thrown at her, with shaky legs she took one step on the deck of the boat. Aden didn't wait for her to catch her breath, he ran to her not letting go. His small body shook with fear he sobbed in her chest overwhelmed by the affection she held him in her arms.

"It's okay, strikon. I'm here," she said extending an arm to Clarke who joined them. "I'm fine," she reassured them. "I'm fine. I told you I'll find you," she said to the blonde who keep kissing her out of relief.

 

~

 

"Wick, let's go," said Raven giving the small family a moment to regroup. She went to the wheel to set course deeper into the river, she busied herself with the boat navigation while Wick kept monitoring the surveillance system.

This little victory felt so different from the other ones she liked to brag about with Wick when they uncovered the corporations little dirty secrets. This was real.

Most of her work was limited to expose people somewhere off in the distance with the inevitable consequences being presented in a dramatic narrative on the news of the evening. But now, those directly affected by her current crusade were hanging to each other for dear life on the deck of her boat.

"That was a close one," said Wick coming from below deck.

"How's everything going?" she asked shattered with the agony in the boy's cries.

"The shooters are gone, but the police are on their way."

Raven exhaled, her sight fixed on the river.

"What is it Raven?" asked Wick concerned.

"Nothing. Get the maps, we need a place to lay low and decide what's next."

"Ok," he said walking out.

"And give them a towel or something."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.
> 
> :)
> 
> Comments are always welcome.


	9. Eigth

It had been a long trek from the muddy road to the cabin where Lexa had been hiding. Lincoln cursed at the caked mud under his shoes scraping it with his pocket knife. He put on the covers on his shoes just before Murphy could set foot inside the cabin.

 "My, my, my," Murphy walked around the cabin's living room. "It's a shame," he commented at the uneaten breakfast still on the table.

 CSI was picking up prints from all over the cabin, the bedroom door was kicked open.

 "There is nothing unusual in the bedroom. There are just a couple travel bags and a backpack filled with toys," said Lincoln in the hall to Gustus ignoring Murphy's smug grin. "The window is locked, so I don't know how they got out."

 "I doubt they did it through that window," Gustus pointed to the small bathroom window. "Becca checked Lexa's wounds that day right?" Gustus was looking at the medicine cabinet in the bathroom minding not to touch anything.

 "Yes," said Lincoln.

 "How bad they were?" he asked taking a picture of the contents.

 "Her face was messed up from a fist fight with an officer and she got some bruised ribs too," Lincoln recognized the smell of the ointment he used when he played football back in high school.

 "Do we have any footage from this morning?" asked Gustus leaving the bathroom.

 "Nah, just a bunch of shaky videos already on YouTube," said Murphy. "Techs are going over them."

 "Hey, Sargent! Check this out!" Yelled Quint from the kitchen

 "Holly crap! It does have its perks to be the little girl of the mafia!"

 "Shut it Murphy!" growled Quint.

 "Get ready," ordered Gustus.

 Quint grabbed the pull just as the rest took out their guns, Lincoln asked the CSI team to vacate the cabin.

 "Polis PD! We are going in!" announced Quint while hitting the trap door with his fist. "One, two..." he opened the door.

 "Murphy," ordered Gustus.

 "Got it," he said rolling his eyes. "There is no one here."

 Lincoln followed after Murphy. "How did they escaped?"

 

"Detectives!" Called a CSI from the door. "We found something!"

 

"Shit!" Murphy stopped behind Lincoln in the line of trees, they had practically run out there.

 Lincoln had never seen that much blood, a body had been dragged from that point back to the many tire-tracks near the door.

 "We found footprints going that way," said one of the scientists pointing to the forest.

 

Gustus ordered him and Murphy to help the forensics team follow the tracks as far as they could before nightfall. With every step, they found bullet shells and hit marks on the trees along with more blood. He prayed that none of it belonged to his friend.

 

* * *

 

"Coffee?"

 After a hurried introduction, Marcus's contact Raven left them alone with the man holding a carafe in invitation.

 "Please," said Clarke putting a pair of dry socks on. Her wet clothes in a pile next to Lexa's. She had helped her change Aden out of his drenched pajamas into the clothes they had prepared the day before.

 She studied Lexa meticulously drying her feet with a grim look that hadn't left her since they walked into the room. _Did she know?_ There had been a high chance of them having to run for their lives since day one but it was too convenient that Lexa got the idea of getting ready all of a sudden.

  _Is she lying?_

 "Does he drink coffee?" asked the man.

 "Not yet. We have some milk for him right here," she said pulling out a small milk carton from her pack.

 "You guys were ready and everything. Cool, cool." He opened one of the cupboards of the kitchen across the couch they were on. "We have cookies if you like," he said offering the package.

 "Thank you," said Clarke taking them.

 "Don't mention it," he said, leaving with a bunch of maps under his arm.

 

* * *

 

Lexa dried her left pinky toe for the third time since Wick left them alone, the sound of the bullet passing next to her ear playing on a loop in her head. It was a close one. She looked at Clarke cradling her son who kept staring at her as if she could disappear.

 "I need to put these to dry," she said standing from the couch with her soaked shoes in one hand.

 In a flash Aden had crossed over to her getting a hold of Lexa's shirt, he shook his head asking her not to go, Clarke covered up a sob with one hand reaching out to her son.

 "It's is okay," Lexa let go of the shoes not knowing how to reassure them that she was okay.

 "Are the bad men coming back?" Aden whispered.

 Lexa held him closer exchanging worried glances with Clarke who kept her tears at bay. "I won't let anyone near you or your mom. I promise."

 The feeling of abject terror of not seeing them again gripped at her heart. A familiar pain on her jaw from fighting her tears was all she allowed herself to feel, just as she realized that for the first time ever she didn't want to die.

 

* * *

 

She hasn't been this scared for her daughter since she called in the middle of the night to tell her she was on her way to Arcadia with a then four-year-old Aden after Finn had gone crazy in a jealous fit over Clarke's working hours.

 Now, she was in the middle of the dark road on her way to Ton DC.

 "You are the only sane person she's ever been with." Abby's hard voice broke the silence. "First this woman came to town and swept Clarke off her feet, as impressionable as she can be," she looked out of the window seeing only the forest. "I feared one day she'll run off with her"

 "Abby-" Nylah held her hand weather out of support or to keep her from talking she didn't know.

 "I was so relieved when she drove herself off the cliff," she had never admitted this to anyone. "Then that bastard, Finn came along. I wanted to... Now, this!"

 "Abby, the police said-"

 "I don't believe any of the lies they say about my daughter going on her own with that, that criminal." Abby spat. "They're protecting her," she said looking at Captain Hills who was on the copilot seat."

 

* * *

 

"How did you do it?" Asked Clarke from her spot under deck. They were all packed in front of the surveillance monitors. Aden was watching a cartoon on a tablet at the table.

 "The SD card that we gave Detective Woods it is a device that allows me to track and to turn on anything that uses either cellphone signal, data or Wi-fi. As long as the battery is still charged with course."

 "So you knew where we were hiding?" Lexa asked eerily calm.

 "Yes" responded Wick.

 "What for?" asked Clarke.

 "In case something like this happened. Look- Raven pointed at the screen on her left. – Here I can see all the conversations going on in a particular area. I can choose either one single cellphone tower or phone central or if needed up to nearly an entire state." She took a sip from her coffee. "But too much data is useless.

 "Unless you know what are you looking for," Clarke finished.

 "Exactly! So, we placed some keywords that might relate to anyone looking for any of you," she pointed to the upright corner on the screen.

 Clarke moved closer to read the words on the list. On the top three was her name along with Marcus and Lexa’s, along with some she figured were in Trig. She went back to her spot next to Lexa, her hand searching from the brunette’s one.

 "It wasn’t exactly hard. Now the really cool stuff was to know when you were trying to reach anyone or search for anything from a different device. Just in case you got rid of your phones or laptop.

 "We made it with your previous search histories and convos," explained Wick.

 Clarke was impressed and scared. "Wait a minute. My laptop?"

 "Yes."

 "How did you installed it?"

 "We didn’t, we sent one to you -- but it was the night of your supposed kidnapping," said Wick.

 "I didn’t get anything."

 "We know," said Raven with a grin.

 "How?" asked Lexa.

 "Because it is connected to the computer of a certain CEO in Polis." Raven showed them the satellite map.

 "Is that…" Lexa couldn't finish her sentence. "Holy..."

 "Oh, yes!" said Raven with a wide smile. "Nix industries CEO’s personal computer."

 "You are amazing!" exclaimed Clarke in awe.

 "I know, I know. Now that you two are here, we can think of a way to bring that woman down."

 "Do you know how many times the police and the Feds have been trying to hack into Nix Industries?" Lexa got closer to the screen.

 Raven shrugged.

 "The legal part is a bit muddy here because the tracker is not exactly legal and it was sent as a deceiving device, but on the other hand, they stole it and installed it themselves. I’ll leave that part to you, Detective Woods," said Raven, standing up from her desk. "I’m getting more coffee," she left towards the other side below deck to the kitchen. "You want some?"

 

* * *

 

Lexa was dumbstruck trying to wrap her mind around the idea that someone like Raven Reyes existed and that she had access to Nya’s computer.

 "Makes you want to get rid of all your electronic stuff, isn't it?" said Wick from his spot near the door.

 "Yeah."

 "So, what’s next?" Asked Raven returning with a fresh mug of coffee.

 "Dinner," said Wick. The three women turned to him like he had grown another arm "I’m starving."

 

* * *

 

 "Do you recognize anything?" asked Captain Hills in a calm voice.

Abby stood in the middle of the small cabin, her jaw was set in a hard line. This was not what she thought they’ll find, atop a folding table were several objects inside plastic bags, labeled and arranged in an all too impersonal catalog.

 "That’s Aden’s," said Nylah pointing to a book. "He was saving it read it this summer."

 "This was inside the book," said a forensics tech pointing the item with a pen.

 Abby went took it, it was a piece of cardboard from an instant Mac & Cheese box. On the other side was a list of words labeled as "Search List."

 "This is not my daughter's handwriting," she was blind with anger when she noticed the pictures of a breakfast that was at the table, it wasn't made by Clarke either.

 "Abby, with all respect," said Nylah. "This doesn’t look like a hostage situation."

 She could not take it anymore and exited the cabin as fast as she could, how could everyone be so blind about that woman?

 "Take me back to my hotel!" she demanded to the Captain.

 

* * *

 

"Lex," Clarke whispered, tracing circles with the tip of her fingers on the scars of Lexa´s right arm.

 "Tell me," she responded. The blonde’s weight on her side comforting her.

 They were on the floor after refusing to take their host bed, Wick slept on the couch and Aden rocked on a hammock above them. Raven had reached hero status in the child's eyes when the hacker pulled the hammock for him to sleep in.

 "There were two keywords on Raven’s list that… well, I’m not sure what they mean."

 "What words?"

 "Goufa."

 "It means child," responded Lexa, Clarke’s silence stretched for a few minutes.

 "The other one is Strikheda."

 The weight of that word fell on Lexa's chest,  she stood up from their improvised bed and left the room. The night was chill, with a gentle breeze coming from the south. The boat floated under an overhang of trees, on their way up north, figuring out their next step.

 Lexa rested her forearms on the rail with her head hanged low, she wasn’t sure if it was shame or defeat. It helped a lot having the warmth radiating from Clarke when she enveloped her in her arms from behind, wrapping them both in a blanket. The blonde’s chin rested on her left shoulder.

 "Little commander," she said above a whisper. "That’s how they called me when I was a kid. Even though Luna is the eldest some people said it will be me who’ll take over Kongeda."

 Clarke didn't say anything, she just tightened her embrace.

 "Nia got bold and had many Trikru killed, my father retaliated soon there were shootings all over the city," Lexa remembered the heavy security that always accompanied her, the reports her father made her read on the people who had been killed the previous day. How he kept telling her and Luna that the city was theirs.

 "When I came of age I had to earn Trikru's respect," Lexa said. "My father ordered me to kill Roan to leave Nia without anyone to take over. I refused." She turned in Clarke’s arms. It was hard to see the blue of her eyes. "I ran away."

 "That’s why he was looking for you." Clarke’s voice was soft.

 "No matter what I do, some still see me as his heir. I could have bled to death when I begged out and there still be people thinking I did it for him."

 "You are not him, fuck whatever other people think of you. Lexa, you are a good person who was handed an awful start in life. It would have been so easy to follow his steps blindly but you didn’t."

 "I…" Lexa blinked her tears away.

 "You grew up thinking that was the way life is, yet you decided to make a better one on your own. And as long as you have me, I’ll be reminding you every day that you are not him." Clarke burrowed deeper in their embrace. "Just… please love don’t make me chase you out in the cold like this again. My ass is freezing."

 A laugh escaped the detective. "Noted," she kissed Clarke softly. "Hodnes."

 "We better get back," whispered Clarke against Lexa’s neck. The breeze had turned into a drizzling rain.

 

 Clarke was settling down when Aden began to whimper.

 "Mom," he searched blindly from his hammock.

 "Hey, strikon." Said Lexa taking the boy from the hammock. "Come here."

 She passed the sleepy boy to Clarke covering them with all the blankets she could.

 "What does _strikon_ mean?" asked Clarke with her son between them.

 "Little one."

 


End file.
